Butterfly Kisses
by ponygurl51090
Summary: What if Ponyboy had a kid? just something i came up with the other night. Sorry for the bad summary. Rerated T for some situations and some language.
1. Davanee Austin

Chapter 1

Davanee Austin

Ponyboy's POV

'Just another boring night at the good ole' Curtis house' I thought to myself as I did my homework. It was a Friday night and I was doing Geometry. How sad is that? I decided that maybe I should give the homeworka restfor a little while and see whats going on outside of my room. Well, it wasn't really just my room. It was Soda's room too.

"What smells good?" I asked, coming into the kitchen.

"Chicken" replied Darry.

"Chicken? Again? Didn't we just have that last night?" I asked.

"Yeah but it's all we got left until I go to the store tomorrow " said Darry, "do me a favor and set the table will ya?"

"Yeah sure" I said, getting out the forks and knifes, "where's Soda?"

"He's still at work. He'll be home a little later" replied Darry.

I put out just enough silverware and plates for dinner that night. I was expecting everyone to show sooner or later since they always come over here to eat and watch TV. And I was right. Just as I set the last place at the table, Two-Bit, Johnny, and Dallas walked in. I figured Steve was working late with Soda.

"What's shakin', Ponyboy?" asked Two-Bit.

"Nothin' much. Just the same old stuff" I replied.

"You catch Mickey this morning?"

"No missed it. What happened?" I asked.

"It was my favorite episode. Mickey's trailer. You know, the one where Mickey, Donald, and Goofy go on a trip across the country" said Two-Bit.

"I know. I've seen it at least a dozen times before. Thanks to you, I've seen just about every Mickey Mouse show known to man" I said.

In about ten minutes or so, Darry was done cooking and we ate dinner. This was the first dinner that Soda had missed. He never misses dinner. Since Darry cooked, I did the dishes. I washed, dried, and put them away. By the time I was done it was already 8:30.

As we where sitting in the living room, watching the news for some reason, I heard a loud knock on the door. Before I could jump up to get it, Two-Bit answered.

"Is Ponyboy home?" asked some guy.

"Yeah hang on a sec. Ponyboy, it's for you" said Two-bit, jerking his thumb towards the door.

"I'm Ponyboy" I said, coming to the door. I hadn't seen that boy before. He looked older then me and he looked like he was from the middle class.

"These are for you" he said, handing me a note.

"Don't you mean this?" I asked.

"No these. The note and the baby" said the guy. I hadn't even noticed the baby lying in the baby carrier next to his feet. The baby was in a basket, wrapped tightly in a pink blanket. She was also wearing a tiny pink hat that had a purple and yellow flower on the edge.

The note was in a envelope that had my name scribbled on the front.

The note read:

_Ponyboy,_

_I'm sorry I never told you about her sooner. I know it was wrong but I was scared. I'm leaving her with you as I am unable to take care of her anymore. Her name is Davanee Austin. She was born on April 22, 1967 in Tulsa General Hospital. If you are unable to take care of her please call the social services office. The number is 555-0967. _

_Sincerely yours,_

_Jamie Coryell._

_P.S. Please take care of our little girl._

'Our little girl? How could I have a little girl? I never did anything' I thought to myself.

"You must have the wrong address. She can't be mine" I said, giving the guy the note back.

"How many Ponyboy's could there be out there?" asked the guy, "besides, Jamie walked here with us but she couldn't go up to the door. I'm her brother. I've got to go now" said Jamie's brother leaving. I watched as Jamie's brother disappeared down the street. I picked up the baby basket and brought it inside.

"Nice baby doll" said Two-Bit.

"This is no baby doll" I said. I set the baby basket down on the couch and took a seat next to it.

"Who's baby is it?" asked Darry. Just as I was about to answer, Soda and Steve came bursting through the door. Saved by Sodapop.

"The mail come yet?" asked Soda, even though it was 8:30 at night. Soda kicked off his shoes and threw them in the corner.

"So, we got this new customer down at the DX and boy is she" Soda began.

"Not now Soda. We're trying to figure out who's baby this is" interrupted Soda. Both Soda and Steve turned to see the baby sitting on the couch.

I took a deep breathe and began telling the guys what happened. It was all coming back to me now.

"I went to a party at the Shepard's house last September, October maybe. Anyways, I met this girl named Jamie Coryell through Curly. I remember having too many drinks that night. Jamie and I started dancing and once we where done dancing, we started making out on one of the couches. An hour and maybe 2 drinks later, we where up in one of the bedrooms and……." I got cut off.

"We know the rest from there" said Darry, "how could this happen?"

"I'm sorry, Dar, I wasn't using my head. I'm sorry" I said. I buried my face in my hands.

"I'm sorry? Is that all you can say? You're not even 15 yet! You can't take care of kid!" yelled Darry. Everybody else seemed to be completely silent.

"All I can say right now is I'm sorry, Darry! I don't know what to say" I said, close to tears. Darry was so mad, he couldn't even speak.

All he could manage to say was "just get to your room. I'm so mad right now I can't bare to look at you." I picked up the baby basket and went to my room.

I sat on my bed with the baby sitting in front of me. She looked to much like me for me to deny that she was mine. She even had the same color eyes.

"Davanee, huh?" I said through tears, "what a nice name. Davanee Austin." I picked the baby up and cradled her in my arms. I began walking around the room with her. She was so little, I was afraid I was going to break her if I held on too tight. I was so wrapped up in the moment, I didn't even hear Soda come in.

"Hey Pony" he said in almost a whisper.

"Hey" I said, not looking up.

"How ya feelin'?" asked Soda.

"A little better" I replied.

"You know Darry thinks you should have a test done or something, just to be sure."

"That's probably not a bad idea. She came with a note. It's on the bed if you wanna read it" I said. Soda looked over the note quickly. The note wasn't that long so it didn't take that long to read.

"Davanee" said Soda.

"Yep. Davanee. Not a name I would've picked but it's pretty" I said. I didn't want to let Davanee go for the rest of the night. Even though it wasn't absolutely certain that she was mine, I had a strong feeling she was.


	2. Paternity test

The first night was hard, especially since we had nothing for her to eat. I kinda figured she wasn't old enough to have chocolate milk or regular food. I'm not that stupid. During the middle of the night, Darry ran out to the grocery store that was open 24 hours and got this special kind of formula. It was formula for babies that didn't have breast milk and since practically everybody in the house was a guy, we had no other choice.

Darry came back around 3:00 with the formula and a pink baby bottle.

It was the powder kind so we had to add water. I poured the formula in the bottle and gave it to Davanee.

"Hold it up so she's not sucking in air" said Darry.

"Since when did you become the baby expert?" I asked, tilting the bottle up a little more.

"Mom let me feed you and Soda a bunch of times and she always said stuff like that" replied Darry.

"You can go back to bed if you want" I said. I noticed that Darry was starting to doze off in his chair.

"Ok, but come get me if you need help. Don't forget to burp her after your done" said Darry, shutting his door quietly so the baby wouldn't get upset.

"You look just like me" I whispered softly, looking down at Davanee, "boy, I've done it now, haven't I? I'll tell you right now, I'm not cut out for this parenting thing. Not at 14. I want to call that social service place but something's telling me not to." Davanee was too cute to give up, but then again, she had already been given up by her mom.

"I'm sorry" I whispered, "I'm sorry I didn't know about you. And I'm sorry you never got a chance to know your mom but then again I didn't really know her either." Davanee sucked down that formula real fast. Now came time to burp her. I grabbed a rag from the kitchen, threw it over my shoulder, and started burping her. I didn't exactly know how to burp a baby or if there was even a certain way but the way I was using seemed to work because she burped about ten minutes later. After that she started crying.

"Shh…..it's ok. Daddy's here" I said, trying to calm her down. I decided to take her to the rocking chair outside. I heard somewhere that rocking chairs help babies fall asleep.

I rocked and rocked and rocked until I thought the rockers on the chair where going to break off. She still hadn't stopped crying.

I decided to try singing to her. I sang "Teddy Bear" by Elvis.

"_Baby let me be,  
Your lovin teddy bear  
Put a chain around my neck,  
And lead me anywhere  
Oh let me be  
Your teddy bear.  
I don't wanna be a tiger  
Cause tigers play too rough  
I don't wanna be a lion  
cause lions ain't the kind  
You love enough.  
Just wanna be, your teddy bear  
Put a chain around my neck  
And lead me anywhere  
Oh let me be  
Your teddy bear.  
Baby let me be, around you every night  
Run your fingers through my hair,  
And cuddle me real tight."_

I couldn't carry a tune whatsoever but it put her to sleep. Even though she was a baby and I was 14, we had something in common. We both liked Elvis songs.

I got up from the rocking chair and went inside, closing the door silently behind me. I got her basket from my room and decided to spend the rest of the night out on the couch. I thought she might wake up again, and I was right. She woke up again at 5 and we went through the same routine. Formula, burping, song on the porch.

"You sleep at all last night?" asked Soda, walking out onto the porch.

"Only a couple of hours. She woke up around 2:30 and again at 5" I said, letting out a loud yawn, "you wanna hold her?"

"Can I?" asked Soda.

"Sure, I'll let you sit here" I said, getting up from the rocking chair. Soda took my place and held his arms out. I gently placed the baby in his arms. In an odd way, she looked like Soda.

"She's so small" commented Soda.

"I know" I said, "but boy can she cry. And eat."

"She's only a baby and already she's actin' like a Curtis" remarked Soda.

Darry came out with his arms full of cups of coffee and chocolate milk.

"Chocolate milk for you" said Darry, setting the glass down on the table next to Soda.

"And coffee for you" he said, handing me a cup.

"Coffee?" I asked, looking at the cup.

"You'll need it" said Darry, taking a sip from his own cup.

"So when's the doctor's appointment?" I asked, making a funny face 'cause the coffee tasted funny.

"Today at noon" replied Darry.

"Are we all going?" asked Soda.

"Don't you have to work today?" I asked.

"Not today. I've got the day off." Just as Soda said that, Davanee started crying again.

"Give her here" I said, setting my coffee down. Soda handed the baby over to me slowly.

"Shh………. It's ok. Daddy's here. Daddy's got ya" I said, rubbing her back softly. She seemed to calm down a little bit but not completely.

"Maybe she needs to be changed" suggested Soda. A look of horror crept across my face. The thought of changing a baby grossed me out completely but I guess it had to be done sooner or later. I'd rather it be later then sooner but apparently Davanee had other plans.

"But we don't have any diapers" I said, "or baby powder, baby wipes, or any of that stuff."

"Or a changing table" added Darry.

I gave him a look that said 'not helping.'

"We can try the floor. Like lay an old blanket down and change her on that" I suggested. You know, for someone who should be in a state of panic, I wasn't doing too bad.

"Not a bad idea" said Darry. We all went inside and while Soda and Darry went to look for an old blanket, I looked for something that can serve as a temporary diaper. I was about to go into mom and dad's room, but I hesitated. It had been almost a year since I had been in there. I wasn't sure I was exactly ready for all the memories to come rushing back to me. I slowly crept into the room, baby in hand. I heard the floor board creek as I stepped into the room. The room was exactly as I remembered it aside from the spiders and dust. All of there clothes where in the closet. All of dad's papers where spread out all over his desk. His briefcase was leaning against the desk chair, ready for the next day at work, which would never come.

I walked hurriedly past the desk, trying my best not to think about them. I searched high and low in the bathroom for anything that might be used to change a baby. Finally, I found some spare diapers underneath the sink. Mom must of kept the diapers I never used. I checked the diapers and they looked useable to me. I grabbed the baby powder, baby wipes, and went back to the living room. By the time I came out, Soda and Darry had already spread the blanket out.

I set the baby down on the blanket, on top of the new diaper. I removed the dirty diaper, holding my nose at the same time. I wiped her bottom, put the baby powder on, and put the new diaper on.

"It seems like you've done this before" said Darry.

"I haven't. I'm going to go get ready for the doctors. Do you think you can watch her for a couple of minutes?" I asked.

"Yeah sure but you know, Pony, we're not even sure she's yours. We probably won't know until a couple of days" said Darry.

"I know" I said, letting out a long sigh, "but just in case."

Darry sighed, looked down at the baby, and asked "what are we suppose to do with her?"

"I dunno. Play peek-a-boo with her or something" I said before getting into the shower. The hot water never felt so good before. It felt like the water was washing away all the worries and thoughts I had the night before. Even though I wasn't sure she was mine, I began to think about her future and what she'll look like when she gets older. If she is mine, will she be involved in the whole grease, soc thing like I am? Will she look more like me or her mother? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

While Darry and Soda where busy getting ready, I played with Davanee on the couch. I played more peek-a-boo with her. She seemed to like that game. I found it boring because after the tenth time of someone shouting peek-a-boo in your face, you figure out that the person is hiding behind there hands.

"Ready?" asked Darry.

"Yeah" I said, scooping the baby off of the couch. When we got to the car, we where faced with another problem. Where was Davanee going to sit?

"Soda, I think there's an old car seat in the garage, will you get it?" I asked.

Soda went into the garage and came back with a green baby seat. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure out how to buckle the seat in, we finally got the baby in. We wrapped her up in her little pink blanket and put her hat on sense it was cold out.

I couldn't take my eyes off her the whole car ride. I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer to the hospital.

Once we did get to the hospital, the nurse had me fill out a bunch of forms. I filled out as much as possible like her name and her mom's name and stuff like that. But I left the stuff like her social security number blank. I handed the papers back to the nurse and she said that a doctor would be out momentarily.

"Are you nervous?" asked Soda, who was sitting next to me.

"Yeah" I said, "I can't help but I think I shouldn't be here. I'm only fourteen."

"But you are here and there's nothing you can do about it now" said Darry.

A couple of minutes later, a doctor called us back.

"I'm Dr. Irene. I'm a pediatrician. And who is this little cutie?" she asked, pointing to Davanee.

"This is Davanee" I replied.

"Which must make you Ponyboy" said Dr. Irene. I nodded my head. Dr. Irene showed us to a room that was painted with rainbows and clowns. I felt like I was a little kid again, waiting to get a booster shot and lollipop. There would be no lollipop this time.

"You're here for a paternity test, right?" asked Dr. Irene.

"That's right. Would it be ok if they stay in the room?" I asked, referring to Darry and Soda.

"Who are they?" asked the doctor.

"My brothers" I replied, "Darry and Soda."

"Yeah they can stay if they want. Now, this is how this test is going to work. I'm going to stick a cotton swab in your mother to gather DNA from your spit, ok?" said Dr. Irene.

"You can stick a cotton swab in her mouth?" I asked.

Dr. Irene laughed and said "yes but it'll be a smaller cotton swab." Dr. Irene pulled out a cotton swab and stuck it in my mouth. She wiped the thing all over my mouth and when she was done, it left a nasty taste in my mouth. She did the same thing to Davanee and put the cotton swab in a separate bag. She labeled the bag with my cotton swab "Curtis, father, Ponyboy" and she labeled Davanee's "Curtis, daughter, Davanee."

"Now, it'll take about five to six days to get the lab results back but once we do, we'll call you. Do you have any questions?" asked Dr. Irene.

"Yeah, um, what are we suppose to do while we wait for the results?" asked Darry.

"For now, I would buy all the baby necessities if you don't already have them. Her mother isn't around , is she?"

I shook my head no.

"Well, in that case, I'm going to give you a special formula to give her. Babies normally don't start using formula until there a couple months old but this one is for babies who don't have a mother" said the doctor, handing me a box of powdered baby formula. The doctor told us that if we had any questions to call her at her regular office.


	3. the results are in

Chapter 3

On the way home, we stopped at the baby store so that we could get the stuff that Davanee would need for the next five days or so.

"Why don't you take the baby and go look at clothes while Soda and I go get diapers and stuff" suggested Darry. I said ok and strapped Davanee into one of those shopping carts that had a little babies seat. I was so confused when I got to the clothes section. They had it divided by age like 5 months, 1 year, newborn, stuff like that.

"Lost?" asked a lady. She looked like she worked at the store.

"Slightly. You see, she's my cousin and I have no idea how old she is" I said.

"Two weeks probably. Two weeks to a month. Try looking over there" said the lady as she pointed to a section that was filled with really little baby clothes.

"Thanks" I said and pushed the cart in that direction.

"Let's see here" I said, studying two different outfits.

I held the outfits up in front of Davanee and asked, "which do you prefer, pink dress with butterflies and matching hat or yellow jumper with bumblebees?"

Davanee smiled when I showed her the pink dress so we went with that one. The yellow one was kind of ugly anyways. We got a couple more outfits, some onesies, and another blanket that had flowers on it.

We walked over to the diaper isle, which was where we found Soda and Darry.

"What did you get?" asked Soda.

"Just some clothes to get her through the week" I replied, "what did you get?"

"A bunch of diapers, baby powder, lotion, and all that stuff" said Soda. Darry threw it all in the cart and we continued to look through the rest of the store. We didn't get a crib or anything because we still had the crib that Darry, Soda, and I had used when we where babies.

"What about toys?" I asked.

"Do you think we'll need 'em?" asked Darry.

"If she's anything like me, she'll get bored easily" I said.

"Good point. Get her a teddy bear or something" suggested Darry. I got her a pink teddy bear that played music when you wound it up in the back. It played twinkle, twinkle, little star. We bought some more little stuffed animals and left. That was enough shopping for one day.

When we got home, I set up my old crib in the guest room. She looked tired so I decided that it was time to put her down for a nap.

I put her new blanket and new teddy bear in the crib, all of which she seemed to like.

"Night, baby" I said leaving the room. As soon as I left, she started crying. I went back in and started singing that teddy bear song again. She fell asleep almost instantly. I shut her bedroom door quietly and threw myself down on the couch.

"Exhausted?" asked Darry, who was reading the paper.

"Beyond belief. I have no idea what I'm doing" I said.

"Your still a kid. Your not suppose to know how to take care of a kid just yet" replied Darry. When I sat up on the couch, I could see Steve and Two-Bit coming up the walk. I got up and held the door open so that Two-Bit wouldn't slam it shut.

"What's happenin'?" asked Two-Bit, a bit too loud.

"Shhh, not so loud" I said, "the baby's sleeping."

"Oh yeah. I forgot about her" said Two-Bit, "what's her name?"

"Davanee Austin" I replied.

"Davanee? Who names their kid Davanee?" asked Steve.

"Jamie did" said Soda, coming out of his room.

"Who's Jamie?" asked Two-Bit.

"Her mom" I replied.

"Oh" said Two-Bit, "where is she?"

"I don't know" I said, "her brother showed up here last night with Davanee. Wait a minute, you where here. Why am I telling you this? I guess I must be more tired then I thought."

"Why don't you go take a nap" suggested Darry.

"Not a bad idea. See you guys later" I said, marching to the guest room. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.

_SODA'S POV_

"Poor kid" I said, sitting down on the couch, "he was up all night with her."

"When do you hear back from the doctor?" asked Steve.

"Next week I guess" said Darry.

"This week is gonna go by slowly" I said. Everybody seemed to agree with me on that.

I still couldn't believe that my baby brother might be a dad. It just didn't seem possible. I thought for sure I would have kids before he did. I don't even remember him going to the party at the Shepard place. He must of snuck out. But wouldn't he have told me if he was going or not? This just wasn't like him. He wouldn't sneak out, he wouldn't drink, and he most certainly wouldn't do anything with a girl he didn't know. He was smarter then that. He was better then that. That sounds like something I would do. As a matter of fact, I have done that before. But a baby never resulted from it. I was always careful. I didn't want to end up some low life with a baby. Wait a minute, why am I saying this? I could be talking about my brother here.

I wonder if he knew everything he could be throwing away. This might ruin his chances of going to good college or going to a college at all. He would never be happy if he had to stay here the rest of his life with only a high school degree. I might be happy with that but he wouldn't.

"Soda?" asked Darry, breaking into my thoughts, "you ok?"

I snapped out of it and said "yeah. Just got distracted is all."

Darry gave me a strange look before going back to reading the newspaper.

The rest of the afternoon went by as it normally did, uneventful. Ponyboy woke up around 4 or so.

"Hey sleeping beauty" I said as he walked out of the guest room.

"Hey" said Pony, rubbing the sleep from his eye.

"You've been a sleep for awhile" I remarked.

"I know, I needed it" said Pony. The baby started crying.

"Davanee's up" I remarked.

"No kidding" said Pony, "she's probably hungry. Would you mind making her a bottle while I get her out of the crib?"

"I don't know how to make a bottle" I said.

"All you have to do is mix the powder with water. It's easy" said Pony. Since I didn't know if I mixed the formula in the bottle or someplace else, I mixed it in cup and then poured it in.

Ponyboy appeared in the kitchen with Davanee in his arms.

"You wanna feed her?" asked Pony.

"Yeah sure." I sat down at the kitchen table and gave Davanee her bottle.

The week went by without hearing a word from the doctor. That is until that Saturday afternoon. I was outside with Pony and Davanee when the phone rang. Pony was getting up to answer it but I said "you stay out here with her. I'll get it." I rushed inside and picked up the phone, expecting it to be Sandy. I hadn't heard from her all day and she normally calls me every day.

"Hello" I said into the phone.

"Hello. Is this the Curtis residence?" asked the lady.

"Yes it is. Who's this?"

"This is Dr. Irene. Davanee's pediatrician. I have the test results."

"Oh let me get Pony." I set the phone down on the coffee table and went outside.

"Ponyboy, phones for you. It's Dr. Irene" I said. Pony's eyes got wide and he jumped up and ran inside. I stayed outside and watched Davanee.

_PONY'S POV_

"Hello?" I asked, a bit apprehensive.

"Ponyboy? This is Dr. Irene. I have your test results back" said Dr. Irene.

"Ok" I said, waiting for the news.

"Are you sitting down?" asked the doctor.

I sat down on the couch and said "yes, I'm sitting down."

"The results are positive. You are Davanee's father." I felt my heart sink. I'm not sure if I was happy or sad.

"If you need any help at all, don't hesitate to call" said Dr. Irene. I hung up the phone without saying goodbye. Davanee was my daughter. The words kept repeating in my head, like a broken record.

I walked back outside and collapsed in the rocking chair.

"What did she say?" asked Soda.

"What?" I asked. I was so wrapped up in the news, I didn't hear Soda.

"I said, what did she say?"

"They're positive. She's mine" I said, my voice no louder then a whisper.

"I suspected it all along" said Soda, looking down at the baby, "she looks like you. I wonder what Darry's gonna say when he finds out." Darry's reaction hadn't even occurred to me. Would he yell at me like he did when Davanee came here? I guess that question would be answered pretty soon because Darry's car pulled up in the driveway.

"Hey Dar" said Soda, "how was work today?"

"It was ok. Nothing special. Did the doctor call today?" Nobody answered.

Darry asked again "did she?"

I nodded my head yes.

"Well, what did she say?"

"The results are positive. She's mine" I said, my head hung low.

At first Darry didn't say anything. But then he said "we better get inside. It's getting cold and we don't want the baby getting sick." I wonder if Darry realized it was the middle of May. I didn't ask and took the baby inside.

While everybody else ate dinner, I gave Davanee her bottle. I hardly ate dinner with everybody else anymore. For some reason, she liked to be outside while I was giving her the bottle. When she was done, I sat the bottle aside and rocked her a little while. For the first time, she looked up with those big green eyes and smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile back. I thought this moment would come when I was like twenty something, maybe thirty something. I didn't know it would come when I was 14 but then again, it's not like anybody plans for that. I leaned down and kissed her bald, little head. I took her inside, and laid her down to go to sleep. Again, she started crying when I left the room. I had forgotten to sing the teddy bear song to her.

Once I was done, I walked out to the living room and noticed Two-Bit and Steve had come by, bringing two big brown boxes.

"What's all this?" I asked.

"These are clothes for Davanee. They where my sisters. My mom thought you could use them more then we could" said Two-Bit. I opened up one of the boxes to reveal piles of little girls clothes. The other box had a bunch of old toys in them. I pulled out a book a couple of books that I was very fond of when I was little. The books where all Dr. Seuss of course and they where classics like _How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Green eggs and ham, and Oh! The places you will go. _

"You think she'll like 'em?" I asked.

"If she's like you, she'll love 'em. Remember how Mom use to read the Grinch to you every Christmas? Maybe you can started that tradition with Davanee" said Soda. Christmas was a ways off so I didn't want to have to think about it just yet.

"Last year was the first Christmas we didn't read the grinch" I said. The room fell silent. I felt bad for bringing up mom.

"I'm going to bed. I mine as well get some sleep while I still can" I said, getting up to go into Soda's room. I changed into my PJ's and went to sleep in the guest room.

Davanee woke up around 3. I made her a bottle and changed her diaper. But of course, the 3 am feeding wouldn't be complete without the song. I thought that maybe I should just record that song for her and play it whenever she got fussy.

Once she fell back asleep, I laid her down gently in her crib. I watched her sleep for a little while. She looked like a little angel.


	4. the tastee freeze

Chapter 4

Soda helped me move the boxes into Davanee's room the next morning.

"Maybe you should take her to the park today" suggested Soda as he hung up a purple dress that had yellow polka-dots. "It's a nice day out."

"Ok. You wanna come with us?" I asked, putting some of the clothes in the dresser.

"I can't. I gotta work today" said Soda.

"It's Sunday. Since when do you work on Sunday?" I asked.

"Joe wanted me to. Darry's gotta work today too." Joe was Soda's boss.

"So I'll be here all alone with Davanee?"

"Maybe. Maybe one of the guys'll stop by" said Soda, placing some stuffed animals in the crib. Davanee was lying on her blanket on the floor with the teddy bear I bought her.

"They probably will" I said. I stuffed more clothes into the dresser.

"Hey, listen, I gotta go to work. I'll be back a little later, ok" said Soda as he put the last of the clothes into the closet.

"Ok. Bye" I said.

"Bye" said Soda. Soda got down in front of Davanee and said "see ya latter cutie. You be a good girl for your daddy, ok?" Davanee just smiled a toothless smile at Soda.

Soda left and I heard the door slam behind him.

"Hey Pony" called Darry from the living room. I got up and brought the baby with me to the living room.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I'm leavin' ok? You think you can handle everything here by yourself?" asked Darry, putting his shoes on.

"Yep, we'll be fine. I think I'm gonna take Davanee to the park a little later" I said.

"Ok. I think there's an old stroller in the garage. Don't forget to bring her toys and stuff" said Darry.

"I won't. You better get goin' or else your gonna be late."

"Ok. You be good, girly" he said to Davanee. Once Darry left, I dressed Davanee in that little pink dress and hat I got her the other day. She looked so cute. I gathered up her toys, bottles, diaper changing stuff, and her blanket.

"Let's go see if we can find that stroller" I said. I opened the garage door and saw the old black stroller in the back. I laid her down with her blanket and teddy bear.

"Here we go, Davanee. Our first trip to the park" I said, walking down the sidewalk. When we where about halfway to the park, I heard someone calling my name.

"Hey Pony!" I turned around to see Johnny running up to us.

"Hey Johnny" I said, "long time no see. What's goin' on?"

"Nothing much. Just the same old stuff. Hey, Two-Bit told me about the baby. How ya holdin' up?" asked Johnny.

"Pretty good actually aside from waking up at 3 am every morning" I said, "we where just goin' to the park, you wanna join us?"

"Yeah sure." Johnny looked down at the stroller. "She's cute, Pony."

"Yeah she is."

"How old is she?"

"About a month, I think. Her birthday is April 22" I said.

"Almost a month" said Johnny as we approached the park. I spread a blanket out underneath the big oak tree and we all sat down. Well, actually Davanee laid down. She couldn't sit up by herself just yet. There where a bunch of moms and there kids here. They all gave me funny looks but from what I could tell they didn't suspect anything.

"So how are things going at home with your parents?" I asked.

"Same as always. Got beet last night cause I came home late" said Johnny.

"Where'd you go last night?"

"Went to the drive-in with Dallas and Shepard. We went to a party at Buck's afterwards and we just lost track time. When I got home, my dad was waiting for me with a busted beer bottle." When Johnny said that, I felt Davanee hit my leg. I thought that she wanted attention so I picked her up and cradled her in my arms.

"He beet you good this time?" I asked.

"No, not really. I got off easy this time."

"You know you could've come over to our house if you needed a place to stay" I said. Johnny already knew that of course but I felt like he needed to be reminded.

"I know but I figured with the baby and all, you guys would probably have your hands full."

"We do but your still welcome to come over. That is if you don't mind being woken up by crying" I said. As I said that, I noticed a red mustang circling the park.

"What do they want?" asked Johnny, following the car around the park with his eyes. My grip tightened on the baby. Luckily for us, they didn't stop. They just drove past us. My grip loosened slightly.

"You wanna go to the Tastee Freeze?" suggested Johnny.

"Why not. If those Socs are gonna be circling the park the whole time, I don't want to be here" I said, getting up. I placed the baby in the stroller and folded up the blanket. We made our way out of the park before the Socs could see us.

"So tell me what happened that night" said Johnny.

"Which one? The party or the night she showed up on my door step?"

"When she showed up."

"Well, we where sitting around in the living room, watching TV and stuff when somebody knocked on the door. As you know, nobody ever knocks on the door at our house so we figured it was probably something important. Two-Bit opened the door and said there was this guy that wanted to speak to me. He told me he was Jamie's brother, gave me a note, and the kid. The note said her name her name was Davanee Austin and that Jamie couldn't take care of her any more. It said that if I couldn't, there was a social services place that I needed to call. Obviously, I never called."

"So basically, her brother just showed and said 'here's your kid. Have a nice life.'?"

"Yeah. Something like that." By then we where at the Tastee Freeze. Surprisingly, the restaurant wasn't filled with smoke, which was good because I wasn't going to bring Davanee in there if it was. We sat down at a booth in the corner. I noticed that a lot of people where looking at me and whispering.

"This isn't uncomfortable at all" I said.

"What?" asked Johnny, looking at the menu.

"Everybody's looking at us" I said. Johnny turned around in his seat to see everybody stare. He turned back around and shrugged.

"What'll it be, guys?" asked the waitress.

"Cherry coke" replied Johnny.

"What about you, hon?" asked the waitress, turning to me.

"Pepsi." The waitress wrote my order down and walked away. Davanee started crying again. I grabbed a bottle out of the diaper bag and stuck it in her mouth. She hadn't eaten in a couple of hours.

"How'd you know that's what she wanted?" asked Johnny.

"She hasn't eaten since five. She needs to eat every 3 hours or so or else she get cranky."

"So what did you say her name was again?" asked Johnny, working on his Cherry Coke that the waitress brought.

"Davanee Austin Curtis" I replied, taking a sip of my own drink.

"What does her name mean?"

"Well, Davanee means friend or beloved one. Austin means exalted and Curtis means courteous. All together, her name is beloved, exalted, courteous one." I couldn't help but laugh when I said that. Could you imagine hearing that name called during the role in the morning at school? I couldn't. It's bad enough to have a name like mine but to have a name like that? I think I'll just call her Davanee.

The waitress came back to get our food orders. Johnny ordered a cheese burger with a side of fries.

"What about you?" asked the waitress.

"Uh…….just fries I guess" I said. I wasn't really all that hungry. The waitress took our orders and put them in with the cook.

I took Davanee out of her stroller, and held her in my lap. She seemed to be somewhat amazed by all the stuff on the table. She had never seen any of that stuff before so who could blame her?

"You want to hold her?" I asked Johnny.

"Can I?"

"Sure." I passed Davanee over the table.

"Hold her head" I said.

"Why? Does it come off?"

I laughed and said "no. It's for support. She can't hold her head up very well yet."

Davanee looked at Johnny and then looked at me, a bit uncertain about Johnny. That's kinda funny because Johnny wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone his best friends baby. Once she got use to Johnny, she looked up at him and smiled.

"She's got Soda's smile" remarked Johnny.

"She does, doesn't she?"

"Yeah" said Johnny. Davanee looked at me and her face started to scrunch up and turn red. She was about to start crying again. Johnny handed her back to me.

"Here we go. You want you teddy bear? Here's your teddy" I said ,winding up the bear. She seemed to calm down once she had her bear. Davanee lifted up her bear towards Johnny.

"I see that's a teddy bear" said Johnny, "your daddy buy that for you?"

"First day we had her" I replied. Davanee then pointed the bear towards me.

"Is that your teddy?" I asked, "watch this." I took a straw out from the straw holder on the table and blew in her face. She smiled really big. She probably would of laughed if she knew how.

I it did a couple more times and she smiled wider every time. On the last time I did it, I noticed a couple of Socs walking into the Tastee Freeze.

"What are they doin' here?" asked Johnny. "This is our hang out." Once again, my grip tightened on Davanee. The Socs took a seat in a booth across the room. They got more stares then I did.

"Maybe we should go" said Johnny.

"Yeah. Let's go" I said. I put Davanee back in the stroller and we where almost out of the restaurant when a couple of Socs stopped us.

"Where you goin' Curtis?" asked one of them. It was Bob.

"Away from you" I snapped.

"Who's kid is that?" he asked.

"She's mine" I replied, and the whole restaurant fell silent. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the jukebox playing in the corner. I turned to walk outside when I heard Bob say "I always knew you'd be a screw up. She'll probably grow up to be a screw up too, just like you." Without thinking, I turned around and hit him square in the eye.

"If you ever lay so much as one hand on her, I will kill you" I warned. And I would do it too. Without saying anything else, Johnny and I walked outside.

"Where did that come from?" asked Johnny.

"I don't know" I replied. I honestly don't know why I hit him. I guess I was just mad about what he said.

"You wanna go someplace else?" asked Johnny.

"I dunno." I looked down at Davanee. She started yawning. "I think I should probably put her down for a nap soon."

"Oh come on, you haven't been out of the house in weeks. Besides, it would do her good to get some fresh air." Johnny did have a point. I hadn't been out in a long time and Davanee did need to get out every once in a while.

"Why don't we go walk around downtown. Davanee might like it" suggested Johnny. I said Ok. We walked around downtown for a long time. I think Davanee liked seeing all the people. We had tons of people stop and tell us how cute she was. We decided to go into the drug store. A lot of people usually hung out there on the weekends. When we walked in, we got a lot of stares like we had at the Tastee Freeze.

"It's crowded in here" said Johnny, sitting down in one of the booths near the window. Just as we sat down, Tim and Dally walked in. They saw us almost immediately and sat down next to us.

"Hey Dal, hey Tim" I said.

"Hey kid. What's happenin'?" asked Dally.

"Nothing really" I replied.

"Hey, Two-Bit told us about the baby" said Tim.

"It seems like Two-Bit told the whole world about her. He tell you about the test results too?"

"No. What about them?" asked Dallas.

"They came back positive" I said.

"Sorry man" said Dallas.

"It's ok. I'm getting the hang of it now" I said, bouncing Davanee on my knee. Davanee yawned again. It was getting close to nap time.

"Guys, I should probably take her back to the house. She's startin' to look a little sleepy" I said.

"I'll come with you" said Johnny. Dally and Tim got up so we could get out.

"You comin' over to the house later?" I asked Dal.

"I dunno. Probably. See ya latter" said Dallas.

I said bye and walked home with Johnny and Davanee. When we got inside the house, I noticed a funny smell. It smelt like new paint. And Darry's car was in the driveway.

"I wonder what Darry's doin' home" I said, "Hey Dar! We're back!"

"In here!" yelled Darry from Davanee's room.

"Let's go see Uncle Darry. Let's go see him" I said to Davanee. There was a huge pink ribbon and bow on Davanee's door. I opened the door to see that her room had been completely redone.

"You guys did all this?" I asked.

"Yep. We where lyin' to ya about workin' today" said Soda.

The room was completely pink. On the wall, above her crib, it said in purple letters "My Little Princess Davanee." All the blankets where pink with little flowers, except for one blanket that had Minnie Mouse, Sleeping Beauty, and other Disney princesses and characters on it. I trust that was from Two-Bit. Above the changing table it said in green letters "Daddy's little girl."

"You did all this for us?" I asked, setting Davanee down in her newly decorated crib.

"We thought she deserved a little girls room instead of a boring guest room" said Darry.

"Wow. Who painted all the flowers and stuff?" I asked, knowing that neither one of my brothers where artist.

"Sandy" replied Soda, "she came by right after you left. We're goin' out later tonight. She wants to come by and see the baby if that's ok with you."

"Yeah that's ok. Tell her I said thanks for painting" I said. Soda left the room to go get ready for his date.

I was busy checking the locks on the crib when Darry said "I'm sorry for what I said to you the other night. You know I didn't mean it." I figured he was talking about the first night we had Davanee. For a little while, I thought he had forgotten about what he said. Either that or he wasn't sorry.

"You where just mad. I understand" I said, covering the baby with her Minnie Mouse blanket. She looked so sweet in her new room.

"Are you still mad at me?"

I thought about it for a minute. He had said that he didn't want to see me but I wasn't known for holding a grudge against anyone.

"No."

Darry smiled one of his rare smiles.


	5. Jamie comes back

Chapter 5

Davanee woke up that night around 7. She hadn't eaten since we where at the Tastee Freeze so she was probably starving.

When I went to her room to get her, she was wide awake, her faced tearstained from crying.

"Shh………it's ok baby. Daddy's here." I grabbed her teddy bear out of her crib. "See look what Daddy's got. You want your teddy?" Before giving her the bear, I wound it up first. I brought her out to the living room so that she could see everybody. In that department, she was the exact opposite of me. She was social and outgoing around people where I was more of an introvert. I laid her down on the floor and placed some of her toys in front of her. I got on the floor with her and waved one of her shiny toys in front of her. It was a little butterfly that had a mirror on it's wings and made crinkly noises.

"Who's that baby?" I asked, pointing to her reflection, "is that Davanee?"

She smiled and squealed slightly. I couldn't help but smile at the shrill sound. It was the first time she had ever made a noises that wasn't crying.

"Maybe you should try giving her a bath" suggested Darry, who was sitting in his chair watching the news.

"You think she's old enough?" I asked.

"Yeah probably. She's probably not ready for the bathtub yet" said Darry.

"Then what am I suppose to bathe her in?"

"The sink."

"How do you?"

" 'Cause Mom use to bathe you in the sink when you where a baby." I said ok and jumped up to get a wash cloth and soap from the bathroom. I got the soap and washcloth, and went into the kitchen and filled the sink up with lukewarm water.

"Not too much water" warned Darry.

"I know, I know." Darry brought Davanee into the kitchen and I undressed her and ran the wash cloth over her. She screamed the minute the washcloth touched her. I dipped the washcloth in the water and rung it out over her stomach. That she didn't seem to mind so much but she still kept screaming.

"Awww………..somebody doesn't like bath time" I said. Just then, I noticed that she was shaking.

"Darry, she's shaking. Is that suppose to happen?" I asked.

"I dunno. She's not sick or anything is she?"

"Maybe we should call Dr. Irene" suggested Darry.

"Good idea." Darry dialed the number and handed me the phone. I guess if I was going to do this whole parenting thing, I needed to learn how to multitask.

"Hello?" came a voice from the other end. It was Dr. Irene.

"Hey Dr. Irene. It's Ponyboy Curtis" I said.

"Hi. Is Davanee ok?"

"Well I don't know. We where giving her her first bath and she started shaking. Is that suppose to happen."

Dr. Irene sort of laughed and said "sweetie, she's shivering. Babies shiver after a bath. It's normal."

I sighed a sigh of relief. "For a minute I thought she was sick or something."

"No. Just cold. I was meaning to talk to you anyways though. You might want to think about bringing Davanee in for her shots."

"Shots?" I almost dropped the phone at the word shots. I never liked them when I was a kid and always freaked when they brought out the needle. And of course the "no operating machinery" joke was getting old. I was only five years old and knew that wasn't funny. But I suppose doctors tried everything they could to keep the baby distracted before the shot.

"We need to give her the standard baby shots. Polio, diphtheria, stuff like that."

"When should I bring her in?"

"Two weeks probably."

"Can I schedule it right now?"

"Sure. I'm open Friday the 22 if that works for you."

"June 22?"

"Yes."

"That works."

"Ok then. I'll see you then. Bye."

I said "bye" and hung up. I finished up Davanee's bath and wrapped her in the towel that was on her changing table. I dressed her in some little purple pajamas that had the feet.

"Now guess what we're gonna do" I said, tickling Davanee, "we're gonna have a baba. Your hungry, aren't you? You must be since you haven't eaten since this afternoon." I wrapped her up in her Minnie mouse blanket and fixed her a bottle.

She was right in the middle of her bottle when somebody knocked on the door. I got up, baby, burp rag and all, to answer the door. I opened the door to reveal Jamie.

"We need to talk" said Jamie, head hung low.

"Darry can you watch her for a minute?" I asked, handing the baby to him. He said yes and continued feeding her. I went back outside.

"What do you want?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Your mad."

"No kidding. One minute my life is perfectly fine and I was finally ok with it, and the next I've got a baby on my hip and a burp rag on my shoulder. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was scared. I was scared about your reaction. I was just scared."

"As if I'm not? I'm the one who's been up every night at 3 am wondering 'am I doing this right?'."

"I'm sorry."

"Why did you give her to me anyways?"

"My family is moving to California next week. My parents never knew about her. I went to my friends house for the nine months. As far as I know, my parents think I ran away because of a big argument we got in and was just being a teenager and wouldn't come to my senses. The only people that knew where my brother and my friend. When she was born, she had a case of jaundice and she couldn't breathe on her own. Her lungs weren't fully developed yet. The doctor said that it would probably be a good idea if she didn't do sports. I kept her for about a week until I brought her to you."

Just as she said that, I heard Davanee crying.

"I gotta go" I said, standing up, "our baby's crying."

I left Jamie out on the porch. Even though she was Davanee's mom, I didn't want her to be within five feet of her.

"What was that all about?" asked Darry, handing me the baby and the burp rag.

"That was Jamie. Davanee's mom."

"What did she said?"

"She thought she'd stop by and tell me that she's' moving to California. Maybe she thinks she can forget all about her life here in Tulsa. Maybe she wants forget about the fact that she has a daughter" I said, pacing the room and trying to burp Davanee at the same time.

"I'm sorry, Pony."

"It's ok. I didn't really expect her to be around anyways. Moms don't just drop the baby off at the fathers doorstep and then show up the next day wanting to play with the baby. Besides, if she really loved her she would of kept her."

"How could anybody give up something that cute? And it's almost like giving up a part of yourself."

"How would you know?"

"Just a guess really."

There was moment of silence between us. I was thinking about what Jamie said, about Davanee being sick when she was born.

"She was sick" I said, almost to myself then to Darry.

"Who was sick?"

"Davanee. She had jaundice and she couldn't breathe on her own."

"Well she's better now. Jaundice is normal for newborns. You had it when you where born."

"How could you remember that? You where six years old."

"My baby brother was getting more attention then me. It's not easy for a six year old to understand that babies need more attention. You might have to explain that to Davanee one day" said Darry.

"That is if any girl wouldn't mind. Some girls hate it when the guy already has a kid" I said.

"You shouldn't have any problems getting another girl. Girls like babies that are as cute as her." But that was just the thing. At that point, I didn't really want another girl. One girl in my life is more then enough for me.

"Hey Dar?" I asked.

"What?"

"What am I going to do about school tomorrow? I can't just leave the baby here all by herself."

"Don't worry about it. I already talked to the school. They said they'll let you finish out the year in night school during the summer. It's not for the whole summer it's just for the first three weeks."

"Why just the first three weeks?"

"Because your only gonna miss the last three weeks. They'll let you make up your exams at the end of the three weeks. You might be doing night school when you go back to school in the fall."

"I didn't know they even had night school at my school."

"Apparently they do."

There was another silence between us. I hadn't realized all Darry and Soda had done for me. They decorated the nursery. Darry helped set up my night school thing. I know it may not seem like a lot but to me it does.

"Thanks Dar."

"For what?"

"For everything. The nursery, the night school. You've been a big help."

"Hey, you woulda done the same thing for me." I thought about that for a minute. Would I do the same thing for Darry if he was in my shoes? Probably not. It's not that I wasn't trying to be mean or anything but it's the truth. I wouldn't. I wouldn't know how to help. I don't know a thing about babies. I barely knew how the handle Davanee.

Another week passed and nothing new really happened, except Davanee picked up the habit of hair pulling. She'd pull out big clumps of my hair almost everyday.

One morning, Davanee woke me up at six in the morning, which was earlier then the normal time. She normally wakes up around 7:30 or 8:00.

"What are you doin' up so early?" I asked, scooping her out of her crib. Instead of crying this morning, she was making little baby noises. I took her out to the kitchen and started making breakfast. Since she wasn't old enough to sit in a high chair or have baby food, I had to make her bottle first. The eggs would have to wait unless someone else woke up this early.

As I sat in the kitchen and fed Davanee, I could hear the shuffling of feat coming down the hall. It was Darry.

"Morning" I said.

"Morning. Want me to start breakfast this morning?" asked Darry.

"Could you? I would but…."

"You've got your hands full. I understand. I guess we can bend the rules just this once. So, tonight's your first night of night school, isn't?" asked Darry, cracking an egg in the frying pan.

"Yep. I'm nervous about leavin' Davanee for the first time."

"I've been meanin' to talk to ya about that. I might have to work late tonight so Soda might be here with Davanee."

"That helps my nervous a lot."

"Soda's not that bad."

"True but I'm still not sure about this."

"She'll be fine. I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Anything" I said. After all he did for me, this was probably the least I could do for him.

"I need you to go to the grocery store today. I'll give you the list of stuff we need. You can take the baby with you."

I said "ok." But he would have to drive me.

After breakfast was over, and after everybody came over to our house, Darry wrote down a shopping list and dropped me off at the grocery store with a couple of hundreds in my pocket.

"Here's the list. Now Soda and Steve will be back here to pick you guys up in half an hour. I'm gonna leave the baby seat with him so they can put it in Steve's car. Good luck at night school tonight. Don't forget to tell Soda Davanee's bedtime routine. He hasn't been home enough times to see you do it" said Darry.

"Ok. See ya later, Dar."

"Bye" said Darry. With that he sped out of the parking lot and in the direction of the roofing company.

I looked over the list briefly before going inside. The list looked something like this:

_Chocolate Milk_

_Eggs_

_Bread_

_Diapers_

_Baby powder & lotion_

_Baby wipes_

_Shampoo_

_Toothpaste_

_Anything else that you think we might need._

I put the baby in one of those carts with the baby carrier and went inside. As soon as I got inside, I could feel about a million eyes on me. Mostly from old people .The kids my age didn't really seem to mind. I walked up and down the isles, throwing things that we needed into the cart.

I was trying to decide on which brand of baby wipes I should buy when a Jerry Lee Lewis song came over the speakers. I think the song was called "Lewis Boogie." I didn't really care since Jerry Lee wasn't exactly my favorite artist. I mean, he was cool and all but he was no Elvis. But Davanee seemed to like the song. She smiled really big when she heard it.

"You like this song?" I asked, "personally I think Jerry Lee is a little psychotic but this song isn't that bad." Just as I turned the corner to get a case of Pepsi, I saw Curly Shepard and Mark Jennings placing six packs of Soda on the shelves. They where wearing a funny looking uniforms too. I tried to get out there before either one of them saw me but I was too late.

"Curtis!" shouted Curly, abandoning his soda's and coming up behind me.

"Long time no see."

"When did you get outa the reformatory, Shepard?"

"Couple of months ago. Tim made me get a job here."

"Hey Mark" I said, trying to be as nice as I could. Mark was ok but he could be real dangerous at times. His buddy Bryon wasn't so bad either but I don't think he really liked me.

"Curtis" said Mark, looking me up and down.

"So what's this we hear about you bein 'Mr. Mom' now?" asked Curly.

"It's true. Her name is Davanee."

"Who's the mom?" asked Mark.

"Jamie Coryell. You know her?"

"That's Angela's best friend. Of course I know her. She's a total babe" said Curly, "too bad she's moved to California though. You did know she was moving, right?"

"I know. She came by and told me a couple of weeks ago" I said.

"Curly! Mark! Back to work!" shouted some guy.

"That's our boss, man. Gotta go" said Mark, heading back down the isle.

"See ya" said Curly, following Mark. I said bye and finished up my shopping.


	6. sick

Chapter 6

I was frantic that night. Not only because that was my first night of night school but it was the first time I had to leave Davanee. Soda was holding Davanee while I ran around the house like a madman.

"Let me give you her bedtime routine. It's bath, in the sink not the tub that is, bottle. The powder is in the pantry all you have to do is add water and heat it up. And it's ok if she doesn't finish it. Then put her in her crib with her Minnie mouse blanket and pink teddy but make sure the teddy is laying down next to her. Lay her on her back, not her stomach. Don't forget to sing the teddy bear song. She won't fall asleep until you do."

"Is that all?" asked Soda.

"I think so" I said, putting my shoes on.

"What am I suppose to do if she starts crying?"

"Rock her. She likes that. Play with her too. She likes the little butterfly with the mirror that makes the crinkly noise. And whatever you do, do not give her any chocolate milk. It'll make her sick. She's not old enough to have real food yet."

"And no leaving her alone, right?"

"Now what do you think?"

"No leaving her alone." I double checked my watch. I was going to be late if I didn't get going soon.

"I gotta go. Bye, sweetie. You be a good girl for Uncle Soda. Daddy will be home soon" I said. Before I ran out the door, I gave her a kiss goodbye. I could hear her screaming all the way from the sidewalk. 'Soda's gonna have his hands full tonight' I thought to myself. I don't think he had ever been left to baby sit by himself.

_SODA'S POV_

I could tell right from the beginning that this was not going to be easy. She screamed for the next twenty minutes or so. I tried rocking her and that seemed to help a little bit but she didn't calm down completely. After an hour of trying everything to get her to stop crying, she finally did.

Before I gave her a bath, I let her play with her toys for a little while. She liked looking at herself in the mirror and the sound that her music box made. I bought her a little ballerina music box that played the nutcracker march from the play _The Nutcracker._ I know it was June but I thought she would like it.

After we where done with playing with every toy in the house, it was bath time. She cried the first couple of minutes but calmed down once she got use to the soap and water. Once the bath was done, I gave her a bottle. As Pony predicted, she didn't finish it.

I laid her down in her crib (on her back, bear laying down) and sang that stupid song to her. Mom never sang to us when we where little so I don't know why Pony did. The rest of the night was pretty quite except for the whole gang coming over. They tried to be quite but it's almost impossible to keep a bunch of teenage guys quite.

_PONY'S POV_

I arrived at the school on time. It looked weird at night. Most of the rooms where dark except for the front office and the rooms they where using for night school.

I walked into the front office, not really sure of where I was suppose to be.

"Here for night school?" asked the lady at the front desk. I had seen her around school before. She was short and her shoulder length hair was grey. Her skin was wrinkly and she wore glasses that where about five inches thick. She looked to be about fifty or so. She also looked like she had better things to do then to baby sit a bunch of kids.

I shook my head yes.

"Room A212. It's upstairs." She didn't even look up at me when she answered.

I walked out of the office and upstairs. The school was quite at night. Usually the hallways where loud and crowded. Not this time. There where a few people there, teachers and staff mostly, but the school was still a little on the eerie side.

When I got to the room, I saw that there where about 20 students, half of which where Socs. I walked in and took a seat at one of the tables in the back. Almost everybody's head turned when I walked in, but that was normal because every students head turns when someone walks in the classroom. It's an awkward feeling but I was use to it by then.

I was getting my books organized when Cherry Valance walked in. I was bit shocked to see her there. Night school was normally for kids who couldn't go to school in the day for one reason or another. To my surprise, she took the seat next to me.

"Hey" she said, "I haven't seen you around lately."

"I've been busy."

"Oh. So why are you here? I thought you where a good student?" That was another reason why kids came here. This served as summer school too.

"I thought everybody knows why I'm here" I replied. I honestly thought everybody in Tulsa knew why I was there.

"Oh, yeah. I heard about that. How you holdin' up?"

"Pretty good" I replied, "so why are you here?"

"My mom suggested that I take summer classes. She said that it looks good on a college application. So basically, I'm here against my will."

"Aren't we all?"

"Yeah but my mom just sprung this on me this morning. It was just kinda like 'Good morning. How did you sleep? Oh by the way, you start night school tonight."

"I know exactly how you feel."

"Oh really how?"

I looked around and noticed about half of the class was looking at us and listening in on our conversation.

"I'll tell you later" I said. Before she could say anything in return, Mr. Symes came in and the class started.

School didn't get over until midnight. Cherry was nice enough to drive me home. It wasn't a good idea to be walking alone in my neighborhood late at night.

I said thanks to Cherry for driving me home and made my way up the walk.

"How'd it go?" asked Soda, who was the only one who was still up.

"Fine. How'd everything go here?"

"Fine. She screamed for like, 20 minutes after you left but after that things seemed to settle down."

"Any problem with getting her to sleep?"

"Nope. None that I can think of."

"Good. Where is everybody?"

"Ummm…..Darry went to bed. Everybody else was over here earlier. Steve and Johnny said they'd probably be back later."

"Nothing out of the usual?"

"Nope, so what happened at school?"

"Nothing really. It's just like normal school except it's dark out and you don't switch classes. There where a bunch of Socs in the class."

"How many?"

"10 maybe. Cherry Valance was there. She sat next to me in the back row and we talked a little before class started."

"What did you talk about?" asked Soda, going into the kitchen.

"Just stuff. Stuff like we where both there and you know, stuff like that" I said, sitting on the counter.

"What did you say?"

"The truth. I figured everybody else knew already so it'd be ok if she knew."

"And why was she there?" asked Soda.

"Parents made her go."

"Typical. Listen, I think I'm gonna go to bed. You comin'?"

"No. She'll be up in an hour so there' s really not point in trying to sleep."

"See ya in the morning" said Soda.

"Night" I said. I hopped off the counter and flipped on the TV. The news was on but I didn't really watch it.

Around one or so, Davanee started crying. I gave her a bottle and everything but she didn't seem to be calming down.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" I asked. I felt her forehead, hoping that it was cool. But sure enough it was hot. I got the thermometer out. It read 102. I started panicking. I had never had a sick kid before and I myself hardly ever gets sick.

"Darry, Darry" I said, shaking him to wake him up.

"What?" he asked in a groggy voice, "what's wrong?"

"Davanee's sick. We gotta take her to the doctor."

Without saying a word, Darry got up and got dressed. I didn't bother changing Davanee. It was ok for her to go in her pajamas. Actually, it was cute for her to go in her pajamas.

Even though the speed limit was 50, Darry was doing 70 the whole way to the hospital. This was the first time Davanee had a fever and we didn't know if it was serious or not. When we got to the hospital, the receptionist told us to fill out a bunch of forms and to wait for a doctor. I wanted to scream 'my child is sick and you tell me to fill out papers!' but I didn't because I was too tired.

About an hour later, a doctor came and got us. This was new doctor.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Dr. Phoenix. Your Ponyboy right?"

I nodded my head yes.

"And the baby must be Davanee?"

"Yeah." An idiot could figure that one out.

"Let's see what's goin' on here" said Dr. Phoenix, setting Davanee on the table that you sit on when you go to the doctors office. The doctor shined a light in her mouth and then in her ears. He wrote something down on his clipboard and said, "it's just an ear infection. It normally goes away within 3 or 4 days. In the mean time, I'm going prescribe some antibiotics for her. These antibiotics are for babies only so they wouldn't work on you. What you do is you give it to her by using an eye dropper. The right amount should be printed on the bottle but if it's not I would suggest ½ a teaspoon. I think that should be all" said Dr. Phoenix, writing the prescription. All I could think was 'that's it? That's all you can do? What kind of a doctor are you anyways?' but then again, it was only an ear infection. It wasn't like it was cancer or anything.

Dr. Phoenix handed me the prescription and after we left the hospital, we went to the local pharmacy that was open 24 hrs. I stayed in the car with Davanee while Darry dropped the prescription off. It wasn't good for a sick baby to be out this late, so I thought it would be good to keep her in the car and let her sleep a little.

In about 20 minutes, we where home, putting Davanee back to bed for a couple of hours. It was 3 am by the time we got back.

"When did they say we could pick up the medicine?" I asked.

"8 o'clock. Soda will have to drive you because I've gotta be at work by then. I'm gonna try to get some sleep. You should do the same." I nodded, too tired to give a real response.

Darry was about half way to his room when I said, "hey Dar."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for coming with me. I'm sorry you had to lose so much sleep."  
"It's ok" said Darry. We left the conversation at that. Darry went back to bed, while I collapsed on the couch. I found it very hard to sleep that night knowing that Davanee was sick. I vaguely wondered if this was how Mom and Dad felt when Darry first got sick. I wondered if they had stayed up all night, worrying about him. I'm sure they probably did. They always stayed up with me whenever I was sick and couldn't sleep. Thinking of mom and dad brought tears to my eyes. If Mom where there with me and Davanee, she would know what to do. I had no idea what I was doing. I felt like someone had put a blind fold over my eyes, spun me around a bunch of times, and pointed me in some direction.

I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes. I could see the inside of the house when it was daytime. Soda was sitting at the kitchen table, doing homework, Darry was away at college, and I was sitting in Darry's chair feed Davanee, with Mom watching over my shoulder so she could be quick to correct me if I was doing something wrong.

Dad would be coming home from work at any moment, then we would eat dinner and we'd be happy and laugh at some joke Dad had just told us. Things would be perfect. Part of me wished that dream would come true but I knew it would never come true. How could it? Mom and Dad where buried in the ground in St. Rose Cemetery. Remembering that they where dead brought me back to the scene of the accident.

The car had broken down on the train tracks. They'd tried to get out but it was too late. The two collided and the car got the worst of it. I remember there being thousands of people running around, taking pictures, pulling the bodies from the car. Someone asked me if I wanted to see them before they took them away but I couldn't bring myself to look at them. At the time, Darry told me that they didn't feel any pain and that they had gone peacefully, but as time went on and as I got older, I slowly realized that there is no way you can't feel anything when your in an accident like that.

It was raining the day of the funeral. I kept trying to tell myself that they weren't dead and that they're bodies weren't really lying in those caskets but when I got home that day, reality hit me. And it hit me hard, kinda like how it hit me when Davanee got sick. I cried all that night and all the next day, about my parents that is.

I was awoken by the sound of Davanee's crying. I hadn't realized that I had fallen asleep. The first thing I did was feel Davanee's forehead. She still felt warm. I took her out of her crib and rocked her, singing to her softly the whole time. I felt bad because there wasn't much I could do about her fever then. We didn't have the medicine and we wouldn't till sometime after 8 o'clock. It was only 5. Once Davanee was done crying, I took her out to the kitchen. To my surprise, I saw Soda cooking breakfast.

"What are you doing up so early? You don't have to go to work until later today" I said, sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Couldn't sleep. You sleep at all last night?"

"No. Darry and I where at the hospital with Davanee last night. She has an ear infection. She's been asleep most of the night until just a couple of minutes ago. We didn't get in until 3 this morning."

"Oh, you want me to make you some coffee?"

"Could you?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure."

I had never wanted coffee so badly before.

"What are you doing today?" I asked.

"Nothing in the morning but I'm workin' in the afternoon. I dunno if I can baby sit Davanee tonight."

"That's ok. I think I'm gonna stay home anyways. I don't wanna leave her alone when she's sick."

"I think Darry'll understand that. You need the rest anyways. You look terrible" said Soda, placing a cup of coffee in front of me. I made a funny face because the coffee tasted terrible. Then, for the first time, Davanee laughed. It took me a minute to register the sound. Everything stopped when I heard her laugh and no matter how terrible a night I had the night before, I laughed and smiled too.


	7. Anya

Chapter 7

I was a bit nervous about taking Davanee to the doctor for her shots. Needles always made me nervous.

"What shots is she getting?" asked Soda.

"I don't know. The doctor said just normal baby shots like polio and stuff like that" I said, pulling my socks on. Soda was going to drive us to the doctor's office and pick us up an hour later.

"I'll be back later" said Soda, "call the station if I'm late."

I said ok and we made our way inside. There where thousands of other little kids there, most of them sneezing and coughing. There where a couple of older kids there too but since most pediatricians only saw kids that where under a certain age, there weren't many. The scary part was I was still young enough to go to a pediatrician and I'm taking my daughter to see one.

I sat down next to a girl who had long, brown hair and green eyes. I think I had seen her around school before but I wasn't sure. There where a lot of girls at my school and they all looked the same.

"You're Ponyboy Curtis, right?" asked the girl.

"Yeah, why?"

"Just curious. I've heard about you. Your parents died in a car accident last year, didn't they?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Anya by the way. I think I've seen you around school. Your in high school, right?"

"Yeah. I think we have a couple of classes together."

"English and Math" replied Anya. Anya seemed nice, not like a greasy girl. She was middle class. "So what are you here for?"

"Davanee has to get her shots."

"Who's Davanee?"

"The baby."

"Oh. I have to get my shots too. I hate how the school makes us gets shots. Needles make me nervous." I was about to say that they make me nervous too but the nurse called us back.

"Good luck" said Anya.

"Good luck to you too" I said.

First, they did all the normal stuff. They weighed her and checked her ears and stuff like that.

"The infection seems to of cleared up" said the nurse. Then she brought the needle out and started getting it ready.

"I'll need for you to distract her" said the nurse. I thought for a minute about what I could distract her with. Then I thought about the coffee I had that made her laugh.

"Got any coffee?" I asked.

The nurse looked at me funny and said "yeah. Why?"

"It'll distract her, trust me." The nurse gave me a funny look again but left to go get the coffee. Part of me wanted to throw the needle out while she wasn't in the room but then I thought about Davanee and her getting sick because she didn't get that shot. I left the needle alone. The nurse came back and handed me the cup of coffee. There where chunks of something floating around in the coffee. For the first time in my life, I was actually afraid of drinking something but I had to do it in order to distract Davanee. I took a sip and made a funny face. It tasted awful. Davanee laughed and while her attention was focused on me, the nurse poked her with the needle. That laughter quickly turned to tears.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"No. We still have one more."

"Two shots? Isn't that a little much for a baby?"

"Not in this case. If she where any smaller, it might be a little much."

"Do I have to drink the coffee again?"

"If it distracts her then, yes I highly suggest you do."

I closed my eyes and took another sip. She laughed and just like before, the laughter turned to tears. The nurse put a pink band-aid on Davanee's arm and the whole thing was over. We where out of there within half an hour.

Since we where so early getting out of the doctor, we had to use the doctor's phone to call Soda. Soda said that he was helping a customer but he'd be there as soon as he could get there.

While we waited, we sat in the waiting room. It was too hot to wait outside.

"How was it?" I looked up to see Anya standing over me.

"Fine I guess. She screamed most of the time but that's normal. How'd it go for you?"

"Ok. It's funny how shots can still be traumatizing when your 14. Your 14, aren't you?" asked Anya, taking the seat next to me. "You know, I didn't see you around school the last three weeks. Where'd you go?"

"I had to switch to night school. I have to be home during the day so that I can baby sit her."

"Your brothers are making you stay home to baby sit your sister?"

"Umm….. no you see, she's my daughter."

"Daughter? But your 14. Your not old enough to have a kid."

"So I've heard. But I do. Wait a minute, how'd you know I had brothers?"

"Shoot, I thought everybody knew about Soda and Darry. Soda's the one who works at the DX, right?"

"Yeah."

"And Darry's the one who works at the roofing company?"

"Yep. That's them alright."

"I guess your job kinda tops both of there's, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're a dad. That's one of the most important jobs of all."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah. I mean, the only man a girl can really depend on is a daddy." That statement made me think. I couldn't help but wonder if Davanee would depend on me in the future. I mean sure, she depended on me then because she couldn't do anything for herself just yet, but what about the future?

"Maybe we should hang out sometime" I said. I know I just met this girl, but it wouldn't hurt to hang out a little. If anything it would help.

"I'd like that" said Anya. Before I could say anything else, I heard a loud car horn outside.

"That's my ride" I said, getting up.

"See ya later" said Anya.

"See ya" I said, walking out the door with Davanee. I strapped Davanee into her car seat and hopped into the front seat.

"How'd it go?" asked Soda.

"Fine. She screamed a lot but it was fine. I met a girl."

"Really? What's her name?"

"Anya. She goes to my school. It's kinda funny 'cause she thought Davanee was my little sister."

"What'd you tell her?"

"That she's my daughter. She was a bit shocked at first but after awhile I think she warmed up to the idea. I dunno though, I don't think I wanna start datin' again just yet."

"Well now you've got someone else to think about whenever you do date."

"I know. That's why I don't wanna date again, for now that is."

"Hey, listen, I was wondering if you'd like to go to the station instead of home. There's not really a whole lot for you to do there."

I said "ok" and in about twenty minutes, we where at the DX. It was pretty busy since it was a Friday, but then again ,it's always busy. Whether that's because Soda works there or Steve is really good with cars, I couldn't tell you.

I must have had a million girls tell me that Davanee was the cutest baby they had ever seen and about half of them thought she was my cousin or sister or something.

Davanee liked sitting in the front of the store and watching all the people. That day seemed to pass by slowly. All I could think about was Anya. I wondered if I would ever see her again. I probably would since we went to school together but then again, I was probably going to do night school instead of regular school for the rest of my life or at least, the rest of my high school life.

I was laying down in the garage when Two-Bit and Johnny stopped by.

"Hey you" said Two-Bit as they approached the garage.

"Hey Two-bit" I said, not opening my eyes.

"Where's the kid?" asked Two-bit.

"She's up front with Soda. He's giving me a bit of a break. I haven't slept good in days. Davanee's just getting over an ear infection" I said, sitting up. The floor was starting to hurt me. I walked with Two-bit and Johnny up to the front of the store. I found Soda sitting with his feet up on the counter, Davanee sitting in his lap. He was asleep. I took the baby from him before she fell. I shook him slightly so that he'd wake up but when he woke up, he fell out of his seat and onto the floor.

"I wasn't asleep" he said, jumping to his feat.

"I can see that" said Two-bit.

"Sorry, it's just business slowed down and it got boring around here" said Soda, brushing himself off.

"Maybe we should go home. Everybody seems to be tired" I suggested.

"Good idea. I'm off now anyways" said Soda. Soda drove Davanee and I home while Two-bit and Johnny followed. I played with the baby why everybody else sat around the TV and watched Mickey Mouse.

"Is it just me or is Mickey always on?" I asked, waving a Mickey mouse toy in front of Davanee.

"Mickey is always on" replied Two-bit, "hey, that's my Mickey mouse toy. How'd you get it?"

"I dunno. Why, you want it back?"

"No. She needs it more then I do."

"Good because she spit up on it about 10 times already."  
"Ok, now I really don't want it back." I sort of laughed and continued to wave the mouse in front of Davanee.

Darry didn't get home till late that night. By the time he got home, Davanee was already asleep but then again, Davanee always fell asleep early. She had fallen asleep at five and it was nine before Darry came home.

"How'd the shots go today?" asked Darry.

"Fine. The doctor said that the ear infection was gone."

"That's good news. Maybe you'll actually be able to sleep now."

"Maybe but she's still a baby so I highly doubt it." Just then, Soda came barreling into the living room all dressed and ready to go out.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Out with the gang. You wanna come?"

"I would but I can't."

"What about you Darry? You never come out with us anymore unless it's to play football."

"Yeah, go out and have fun. I'll stay here and hold the fort down" I offered. Darry hardly ever went out with the gang. He hesitated for a moment before finally saying yes. In about 20 minutes or so, I was all alone in the house. Well I wasn't alone but I was the only person who was awake. As I flipped through the channels on the TV, I wondered if the rest of my life was going to be like this. Sit at home on a Friday night and watch TV while everybody else goes out and has fun. I was hoping it wouldn't but deep down inside I knew that it would. That's what my parents always did before they died. They'd sit at home and pay the bills or watch TV or do something boring like that.

While I was flipping through the channels, I heard a soft knock on the door. I was surprised I wasn't scarred from answering the door whenever someone knocked. First, it was Jamie's brother with Davanee, and then it was Jamie. I thought nothing good could come from answering the door when I opened it but when I saw Anya I relaxed a bit.

"Hey" I said.

"Hey."

"You wanna come in?" I asked, pushing the door open a little further. Anya stepped inside without saying anything.

"How'd you know I lived here?"

"I looked you up in the phone book. You're the only Curtis family in there so it wasn't hard. You have a nice house."

"Thanks. We haven't had time to clean it up lately. We've all been really busy. I don't mean to be mean but what are you doing here?"

"I don't know. I didn't really have any place to go."

"Wait, lets go back outside so we don't wake the baby up" I said. Anya and I headed back outside, propping the door open so I could hear Davanee if she woke up. We both sat on the swing that was in the corner of our porch.

"You wanna tell me what happened?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well there has to be some reason why you don't have a place to go. What happened?"

"From the beginning?"

"That would be a good place to start."

"Ok, well, first of all, my real name isn't Anya, it's Anastasia. My parents where Russian and after hearing the story of the infamous Anastasia, they decided that they liked the name. My parents loved me a lot ya know so it's not like my life was terrible with them or something. You see, when I was about five or so, my whole family was murdered. It wasn't a pretty sight, it was very brutal. They think that the killer used an ax or something. I'm the only one that made it out because I was spending the night with a friend. The police showed up at my friends house and they took me away. They took me to social services who put me in an adoption center. I was adopted almost immediately and my name was changed to Anya. My adopted parents never loved me. My dad is a drunk and he hits me or sometimes does worse. My mother is a drug addicted. They weren't like this when they adopted me, they where loving because the state wouldn't give a child to a drug addict or drunk. I ran away tonight because my dad hit me and he tried to do worse to me. That's how I got here because I figured my dad would never find me here" explained Anya. That was bit more then what I had bargained for. I wasn't expecting her whole life story, just what made her come here.

"You know, your story is kind like the Anastasia one. I mean, wasn't her whole family murdered and her name changed to Anya too?" I asked. I remember studying Anastasia and her family in school once.

"Yeah, it's kinda weird how that happened, isn't it?" There was a moment of silence between us.

Anya took a deep breathe and said, "you know sometimes I think I'm all alone in the world because I have nobody to turn to when things get tough."

"It's a big world. There must be somebody out there you can talk to."

"I've tried. I don't have any other family and when I started talking to my friends about it they just turn up there noses and act like they don't know me because that kind of stuff happens to me."

"I wouldn't do that to you. Friends don't do that to each other" I said, reassuringly.

She smiled and said "thanks. Your not so bad Curtis." I was going to say something in return but Davanee started crying.

"I'll wait out here" said Anya while I went inside. I picked Davanee up, wrapped her in her Minnie Mouse blanket and brought her outside. I sat back down next to Anya on the swing.

"You sure it's ok she's outside this late?" asked Anya.

"It's not cold out. It shouldn't bother her. You know, I know exactly how you feel when you think you're the only one in the world who has to go through this. I mean, same feeling, different situation."

"It's a big world, Curtis. There must be someone out there you can talk to" said Anya. Now, where had I heard that before? I wonder.

"Actually" continued Anya, "I have this friend who got his girlfriend pregnant when he was 16, I think. 16 or 17. Anyways, he went to this support group and it's for teenage moms and dads. I can get you the number for the place if you want. There's usually a lot of babies there so I guess it's ok if you bring Davanee. It's a pretty cool place actually. My friend took me there a couple of times. He still goes there even though his kid is like 2. I think he goes there mostly to talk to the new parents and stuff."

"Thanks, Anya."


	8. first time for everything

Chapter 8

A couple days later, Anya went with me to that place that we talked about. I was a bit nervous but excited at the same time. I was happy about meeting people who knew exactly what I was going through. I told Darry and Soda about it and they said it was a great idea. They would've gone with me but both of them had to work that night. Anya and I met up at my house and we walked the whole way, pushing Davanee in the stroller.

"I think you're going to like this place" said Anya, "there are a lot of nice people there. And they have someplace where you can take your kid if they start to cry. It's kinda cool."

"Sounds like it" I said. We walked the rest of the way in silence. It wasn't one of those awkward silences, it's just that there was nothing to talk about really. Tulsa can be a pretty boring town but then again, what town isn't?

We arrived at the place where the support group was at just before the group started. There where tons of people there with there kids. The scary part was, there where pregnant girls there who looked younger then me. We took a seat in the very last row since all the seats in the front where taken.

"Do you know any of these people?" I asked.

"Yeah. I know a bunch of these people."

"Like who?"

Anya took a minute before pointing someone out to me. "You see that girl over there?" Anya pointed to a tall redheaded girl. She looked to be a couple years older then me. She had a little boy tugging on her shirt tail. "That's Sarah. She started coming here when she was our age when she had Ben."

"Where's the boyfriend?" I asked, even though it was none of my business.

"No one really knows for sure. He was at the hospital when Ben was born but disappeared a few days after. Haven't heard from him since."

Anya looked around the room again and then pointed someone else out to me. "You see that guy over there? That's Stephen. He's the one I told you about. The little girl he's holding is Hailey. His girlfriend had her when she was 17, I think. She died from pneumonia just after Hailey was born." Just as she said that, the group started. A bunch of people got up and gave their testimonies about how hard it was to take care of a baby. I didn't need to hear a testimony to know about that. Then, they asked all the newcomers to stand up and introduce themselves and their kids if they had them. I didn't bother getting up. Anya wanted me to at first but I protested and she gave in. I promised her that I would introduce myself next time, that is if I wanted to come back.

After the group meeting was over, Anya had to stop and talk to everyone and all the kids. I didn't mind really. It's not like I was in a big rush to get out of there.

Just when I thought Anya was done talking to everyone, Stephen came up to us. Of course, Anya had to talk to him as well.

"Who's your friend?" asked Stephen.

"Oh, Stephen, this is Ponyboy. He's new here. Ponyboy, this is Stephen and Hailey." I shook Stephen's hand and waved at Hailey. She hid behind Stephen, poking her head out every couple of seconds.

"This is Davanee" I said, taking the baby out of the stroller.

"Oh, she's yours, isn't she?" asked Stephen.

"Yep" I said.

"How old are you?" asked Stephen.

"14. You?"

"20."

"We better get her home" said Anya towards me, "it's getting late."

"You guys coming back next week?" asked Stephen.

"I don't know, probably" I said.

"You know I'll be back" said Anya, smiling.

"Alright, see you guys next week" said Stephen, picking Hailey up.

I said bye and started to leave when Stephen grabbed me by the arm.

"Hey" he began, "it gets better. You'll start sleeping at night, trust me."

I smiled and said "thanks."

"Baby, Daddy, baby" said Hailey, pointing to Davanee.

"I see that" said Stephen. "I hope you guys come back next week."

"We probably will" I said. With that, we met up with Anya, who was waiting for us at the door.

"What did Stephen want?"

"Oh nothing really. He just said thanks for coming and hope to see you next week. That sort of thing."

"I told you most of those people are nice."

"Yeah, they are. If you don't mind me asking, why do you always go there if you don't have a kid?"

"My grandmother started that group. She had my mom, my adoptive mom that is, when she was 19 and she felt so alone. She thought it might be easier if she knew someone who was going through the same thing. When my mom was a little older, my grandma started the group beginning with five couples and it grew from there. She took me every week until she died about two years ago. She was the only adoptive person in my family who really cared about me besides my brother. So, in her honor, I keep going to the group and make sure everything is going well with everybody. That's what my grandma always did" explained Anya. That was kinda sad. It made me happy to know that I had a family that loved me unlike Anya who was basically alone in the world.

"You never told me you had a brother" I said.

"Tommy. He moved out last year but he calls me every week to make sure I'm ok and he sends me money when I need it. He's in college now and he's got a girlfriend and all, but he comes home a lot too. He says that when he gets a big enough apartment, he's gonna come get me and take me away from our parents. He was always there for me whenever my dad went on one of his drinking sprees. I miss him a lot. Your lucky your brothers are always around for you."

"I know. They've helped me a lot over the past couple of months. I owe them a lot" I said. We talked for a little while longer and 10 minutes later, we where outside my house.

"My brother is home this week and he's coming to pick me up at the park" said Anya, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"I can walk with you" I offered, "it's not safe for someone to be walking home in this neighborhood at night."

"That's sweet of you but I think handle it. The park is only a couple of minutes away. Besides, you gotta get Davanee to bed."

I peeked down into the stroller. Davanee had already fallen asleep.

"You'll be ok" said Anya, "both of you will."

"I know but right now it's just hard especially when you've got three guys who don't know the first thing about babies."

Anya laughed and said "you live and learn. Well, I have to go. My brother is probably waiting on me."

"Well, let me put her down first and then we can go."

Anya thought about it for a minute before saying "ok. But don't take too long. Tommy's probably waiting on me."

I took Davanee inside and put her to bed.

"Will you watch for a couple of minutes? I'm walking Anya down to the park. Her brothers' gonna pick her up there" I said to Darry, who was sitting in the living room.

"Don't take too long. It's getting late" said Darry.

"I won't" I said, walking out the door. I pushed the stroller back into the garage and we left.

"So how old is your brother?" I asked.

"19. He's gonna be 20 in September. He's studying to become a doctor. He's real smart, ya know? He was in the gifted program in high school." She looked real pretty that night. The moonlight made her eyes sparkle in a wired way, bringing out the specks of brown.

"What?" she asked.

I shook my head slightly and asked "what do you mean what?"

"You where staring at me."

"Sorry."

"It's ok. I'm use to it. People stare at me all the time."

'I can see why' I thought. She was pretty, maybe even borderline beautiful. She took her hands out of her pockets and let them dangle lifelessly by her side. I reached down and held her hand in mine. At first I thought she was going to pull away but she didn't. She just smiled a warm smile back at me. I was glad that it was dark out because I'm sure my ears where starting to turn red. When we arrived at the park, there was no car in sight so we sat down under the big oak tree, still holding hands.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" I asked.

"I want to be college professor. Weird, I know but ever since I was little I wanted to be a professor of some sorts. I might go to Dartmouth to study to become a literature professor. Or I might stay here and go to Oklahoma. What about you?"

"I don't really know. I'll probably stay around here for a little while and go to Oklahoma but I'm not sure. I've got to think about what's best for Davanee. By the time I get to college, she'll be about 5 or 6."

"Those years will go by fast."

"Not too fast I hope." Just as I finished saying, a loud car horn came from around the corner. I turned around to see a black T-bird coming towards us.

"That's Tommy" said Anya, jumping up. We finally let go. "I have to go." The car came to a screeching halt in front of us. I could hear cheap country music coming from inside the car.

"I'll see you later I guess" said Anya.

"Maybe. Hopefully."

"Hopefully? You want to see me again?"

"Who wouldn't?"

Before she had a chance to answer, I kissed her. For a moment, everything felt perfect. Fireworks where going off in my mind. After two minutes or so she pulled back, smiled at me, and got in the car. The car sped off down the road, leaving me in the dust. I shoved my hands in my pockets and smiled slightly, walking back to the house. In a way, it was my first real kiss. I know I said I had been making out with Jamie at that party but we where both drunk and we didn't really feel anything for each other.

I walked home and went straight to bed. I didn't even notice the gang sitting in the living room.


	9. the zoo and more

Chapter 9

I was getting Davanee dressed and ready to go out when Anya stopped by.

"Hello?" she called out as she entered the house.

"In here!" I called back, pulling a shirt over Davanee's head. Anya stepped in and looked around.

"Cute room. You do it yourself?"

"Nope. Darry and Soda did it for me" I said, picking out a pair of jeans from the dresser.

"You guys going somewhere?" asked Anya.

"Yep. We're taking our first trip to the zoo. I know she won't remember it but I think she'll like it anyways."

"Oh of course. My grandma said that she took me to the zoo when I was about that age. She'll like it" said Anya, stepping out of the room. I continued to get Davanee ready while Anya played our piano. It was a bit out of tune and hadn't been played since mom and dad died. Mom was the only one who was really good at playing the piano. She taught me a few songs before she died, but after that I didn't want to play. It reminded me too much of her.

"You play piano?" I asked, coming out of Davanee's room.

"10 years. My grandma started teaching me when I was 4."

"Boy, you musta had some grandma."

"Yeah, she was something alright. Do you know how to play piano?" asked Anya.

"A little. But I haven't played since my parents died. My mom was the only one who really played."

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know."

"Oh it's ok. It's was just kinda sitting there anyways. It probably needed to be used" I said, rubbing some sunscreen on Davanee.

"Would you like to come with us to the zoo?" I asked.

"Ok. I have nothing better to do so why not" said Anya, getting up from the piano bench. I put a hat on Davanee and we made our way to the bus stop. Both Soda and Darry had to work that day so I didn't have a ride.

"You mind if we take the bus?" I asked.

"Not at all. I have to take the bus sometimes."

We waited at the bus stop for what seemed like forever until finally a bus pulled up in front of us, gas fumes and all. Anya and I only had to pay a dollar and Davanee was free because she could sit on my lap. Davanee seemed to get a big kick out of the bus but the people on the bus didn't seem to get a big kick out of her. Everyone stared at Anya and I like we were aliens or something. They probably thought the baby was Anya's, which made me kind of mad. I hate how people can be so judgmental before they really get to know the person. I wanted to stand up and yell the baby isn't hers but I just sat back and enjoyed the air conditioning while I could. It was hot out and there weren't a whole lot of air conditioned places at the zoo besides the restaurant, gift shop, and bathrooms.

We pulled up in front of the zoo about 45 minutes later. The place was almost disserted. Probably because it was so hot out. It only cost us 8.00 to get in since kids ten and up where 4.00 and babies where free.

We walked around for awhile until Davanee started crying. We decided that it was probably best we get her out of the heat for a little while. We sat down at one of the tables inside the restaurant. Davanee sucked on her bottle while Anya and I talked. We didn't really talk about anything, just stuff like how hot it was outside or how crowded it was or how you couldn't see any of the animals because they where hidden amongst the trees.

About an hour or so later, we left. We decided that it probably wasn't a good idea for Davanee to be out in that kind of heat. We took the bus back to the bus stop and walked to my house. Anya didn't stay for very long. She claimed that her dad wanted her home by 5:30 and it was almost 5 o'clock. She left, leaving Davanee and I alone. That is until Soda and Steve got off work.

"Anybody home?" called Soda from the living room.

"In here!" I called. I was in Davanee's room, reading _Green Eggs and Ham _to Davanee.

"How was the zoo?" asked Soda with a glass of chocolate milk in hand.

"It was fine. Hot but fine."  
"Hey, me and the rest of the guys are goin' out later, you wanna come?" asked Soda. I thought about it for a moment. I hadn't been out with the gang in a long, long time but something was telling to stay home. I looked down at Davanee, who looked up at me and smiled. How could I resist that sweet smile?  
"Sorry. Maybe next time."

"It's ok. I understand. But ya know, it wouldn't hurt to go out with friends every once and awhile."

"Hey, I went out with a friend today."

"Who?"

"Remember that girl I told you about, Anya? She went with us to the zoo today."

"Is that the same girl who invited you to that group thing?"

"Yep. Same girl. I walked with her to the park afterward the group thing."

"And what happened there?" asked Soda, leaning against the wall. He was dirty from work so I'm sure he was getting everything else dirty.

"We talked, we kissed, and then her brother came to pick her up" I said, like it was no big deal.

"Wait a minute, what happened?" asked Soda in disbelief.

"Her brother came to pick her up" I repeated. I knew exactly what he was talking about but I decided I would mess with him a little. What's the point of having siblings if you can't mess with them every once in a while?

"Before that" said Soda, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We talked."

"After that."

"We kissed."

"Bingo. You never mentioned that to me."

"Well I'm normally not one to kiss and tell."

"Please, tell me. Did you do anything more then kiss?"

"Are you crazy? Of course we didn't. She's not that type of person. Besides, the last time I did anything more then kissing, I ended up with a daughter. Don't get me wrong, I love Davanee to death but I don't want another kid until I'm older and I can handle it better."

"Good point. So this Anya girl, is she pretty?"

"Of course she is. She's beautiful."

Just then Steve came into the room.

"I was wondering where you were. What are you doing in here?" asked Steve.

"Ponyboy here was just telling me about the romantic adventure he and his little girlfriend had at the park last night."

"What did you do?" asked Steve.

I was about to say 'none of your business' but Soda answered for me "they kissed. Ah, yes, love is definitely in the air at the Curtis house." Soda put his arm around me when he said that.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, taking Soda's arm off my shoulder. Soda took Davanee from me and said "I think I'm gonna marry Sandy. She stopped by the station today and she looked absolutely wonderful but of course, she always looks good." Soda took his DX hat off and placed it on Davanee's head. The hat fell over her eyes and nose. She looked cute with the hat on even if it was way too big.

"Have you told Darry about your marriage plans yet? Cause I'm sure he'll be absolutely thrilled when he hears that his 16 year old little brother is getting married" I said.

"No he doesn't know and he won't know. I'm gonna wait a little while. Wait till your out of school or something" said Soda, "so when do I get to meet this Anya I've been hearing so much about?"

"I dunno. Tomorrow maybe. She had to be home early today but she'll probably stop by tomorrow for dinner or something."

"Ah, well, she must be pretty special if she's coming over for dinner" said Soda, walking into the living room. I went to the kitchen to get myself a Pepsi. I hadn't had anything to drink since we where at that restaurant in the zoo. I was busy trying to get the cap off of the bottle when Soda called me into the living room.

"What?" I asked.

"Look at Davanee" said Soda, pointing towards the ground. I looked down to see Davanee sitting up all by herself. She hadn't done that yet. She always needed something or someone behind her. She looked up at me and smiled while handing me Soda's hat. All I could do was smile and be proud about the fact that my little girl could actually sit instead of just lay there.

Later on that night everybody, including Darry, went out. I set up the old play pin for Davanee so that I could make dinner. It had been awhile since anyone had used that play pin so I had to clean out all the cobwebs and bugs first. I placed Davanee in there along with some of her toys and her blanket. I decided to make something easy for dinner that night so I made hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. I was in the middle of making the hot dogs when I heard Davanee's favorite song come on the radio. Of course, I turned it all the way up. She started squealing when she heard the song and of course, I started singing along.

"Can ya dance, Davanee?" I asked. I gave her a demonstration on dancing. She laughed at first, probably because I'm such a horrible dancer, but then she tried to dance herself. Baby dancing that is which would consist of them bouncing around will still managing to stay seated and clapping there hands together. She was a better dancer then me. Sad, I know. Right when the song was over, Anya walked in. Thank God she didn't walk in a minute earlier or else I would've made total idiot of myself.

"You an Elvis fan?" asked Anya over the radio.

"What!" I yelled. The radio was too loud. She was about to say it again but I gave her the 'one minute' sign and turned down the radio.

"What'd you say?" I asked.

"I asked are you an Elvis fan?"

"Of course. So what brings you over to our home sweet home?" I asked.

"I was in the neighborhood and I thought I'd stop by."

"In other words you didn't have anything better to do?" I asked.

"Exactly."

"Well, I was just making dinner. Care to join me?"

"That depends. What are you making?"

"Hot dogs and macaroni and cheese."

"My favorite. I guess I could stay for a little while." I set another place at the table and we ate dinner together. It was almost like a real date. After dinner, I took Davanee out of her play pin and let her play on the floor for a little while. It was kinda funny to see her fall backwards a few times since she hadn't gotten use to sitting on her own yet. I was about to put Davanee to bed when I looked up and saw somebody standing outside our house. I couldn't see who it was because it was dark outside. All I could see the rock coming towards our window. The rock was big and it shattered the window, sending pieces of glass flying all over the room. One of the pieces hit Davanee on the face and cut her just below the eye. I handed the baby to Anya and marched right outside.

As I came closer to the people, I saw that it was the same boy who had given me Davanee and the note. Funny thing is, I thought Jamie's family moved to California.

"What are you doing!" I yelled, a little louder then I intended.

Jamie's brother was curled up in a ball on the sidewalk, leaning against the chain link fence.

"What are you doing?" I repeated.

"It's all your fault."

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Peter. It's all your fault."

"What's all my fault?"

"You're the reason why she left. She told them that she wanted to be a movie star but the really reason why she left was to get away from you. I lost my sister because of you."

"It's not just my fault, ya know? It takes two people to make a baby so I think Jamie is somewhat to blame here, do ya think?"

Peter didn't reply. He just stayed curled up in a ball and started shaking slightly.

He looked up at me and though it was dark out, I could see that his big, round eyes where filled with tears.

"She was my best friend" he finally said, "she was my little sister. She was so innocent and you took that away from her. She can't ever get it back. Nothing can be the same again."

"But part of this is her fault. Your precious little sister got drunk at that party too. It's not all my fault." There was a silence between us. I could feel the night getting hotter by the minute.

"You hurt her" I said after a couple of minutes.

"Hurt who?"

"Davanee. She has a cut on her cheek, right under her eye thanks to you. Any higher and she could have been blind."

"I never meant to hurt her."

"Right. Do you know how much it's gonna cost to fix that window? We don't have the money like you and Jamie do. We're not as well off as you are." With that, I decided to leave that conversation at that. I could hear Davanee inside the house, screaming because of her cut. Besides, Peter wasn't worth the energy anyways.

I turned on my heels and went back inside, leaving Peter outside against the fence.

"What was that all about?" asked Anya, who was trying to clean up Davanee's cut.

"Who knows. Is she ok?"

"She'll be fine" replied Anya, handing Davanee to me.

"Shhhh……….it's ok, sweetie. Daddy's here" I said in a soothing voice, "I'm not gonna let anything hurt you." I laid Davanee down in her crib and sang her the teddy bear song, stroking her back softly. She calmed down after a couple of minutes and finally fell asleep. I sat down in the rocking chair that was in the corner of the room, and for some unknown reason, I cried. Maybe it was because I was tired. Maybe it was because the responsibility overload was finally getting to me. Maybe it was because somebody hurt my baby. In my honest opinion, I think it was a mixture of all of the above. I cried myself to sleep that night in the rocking chair.


	10. babysitter

Chapter 10

Another month passed and before I knew it, Davanee was almost 5 months old.

I was playing outside with Davanee when Darry came home with a bunch of groceries. I put Davanee in her play pin and helped Darry bring in the groceries.

"How was your day?" I asked.

"Fine. Nothing new. Yours?"

"Last day of summer. But then again, I'm going to night school so it may still seem like summer."

"That's right. You start night school tomorrow." As Darry said that, I pulled out a bunch of baby food jars.

"Baby food already?" I asked.

"Why not? She's almost five months."

"You think we should start giving her real milk instead of formula now?" I asked.

"I dunno. Why don't you call the doctor?" asked Darry.

So I did.

"Not yet" replied Dr. Irene, "but she probably is ready for baby food."

I said thanks and hung up the phone.

"So what are your plans tonight?" I asked.

"I gotta go back to work pretty soon. I won't be home until late" said Darry, "what about you?"

"I'm baby sitting tonight. Remember Stephen, that guy from the group that I told you about? He's dropping his daughter off over here. He said that he has a date or something" I said.

"Oh, there's something I forgot to tell you" said Darry.

"What's that?"

"Two-bit is dropping his little sister, Kara, off here. His mom has to work late and he's going out with Kathy tonight. But Soda should be home early so you'll probably have help" said Darry as we finished putting the grocery away.

"When did you plan on telling me this?" I asked.

"I dunno. It just slipped my mind I guess. Sorry."

"It's ok. It shouldn't be that hard. How old is Kara?"

"5 I think. How old is the other kid?"

"Hailey is two" I said.

"5, 2, and 5 months. Your gonna have your hands full tonight little brother" said Darry.

"No kidding. Maybe we should just open a day care and start charging people" I suggested. Darry laughed. That kind of surprised me. Darry never laughs.

The afternoon came and went and soon it was time for everybody to come over.

I was reading to Davanee when I heard two-bit come in.

"Pony!" called Two-Bit. I picked Davanee up and brought her out to the living room.

"I'm right here" I said.

"Would you mind watching her tonight? I've got a big date with Kathy."

"Where you takin' her?" I asked.

"To the movies and then to dinner."

"Oh, yeah, real big date there. Darry told me y'all where stopping by" I said, "where's Kara?"

"Right hewre" said Kara, stepping out from behind two-bit.

"Kara, you remember Pony don't you? He's gonna be watchin' ya tonight until I get back, ok?"

"Otay" said Kara in her little 5 year old voice.

"Alright, see ya later" said Two-Bit, walking out the door. Kara and I just stood there, staring at each other for a minute.

"Who dat?" asked Kara, pointing to the baby.

"This is Davanee" I said. I set Davanee down in her play pin so that she could play with some of her toys.

"So, Kara, what'd you wanna do?" I asked. We really didn't have a lot of things for a five year old to play with. The toys we had were mostly baby toys.

"I dunno. You wanna play Barbie's with me?" asked Kara. She was holding a couple of Barbie dolls in her little arms.

Before I could say anything, there was a knock on the door.

"Hold that thought" I said. I opened the door to see Stephen and Haley.

"Just in time" I said.

"Just in time for what?" asked Stephen.

"For Haley to play Barbie with us."

"Us?"

"My friends little sister. Hailey'll have a playmate tonight."

"Oh that's good. I hope you don't mind but I might not be back until late."

"Date tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah. I've been putting it off for a while and she'll be mad if I'm late" said Stephen.

"Say no more. You go on and have fun. We'll play Barbie and stuff here."

"Good. She's already eaten so you don't have to worry about feeding her. If I'm running late, she usually falls asleep around 9. You don't have to put her to bed or anything. She brought a bunch of her Barbie dolls but she left the little shoes at home so that the baby doesn't get a hold of them. She also brought her Cinderella tape. I don't know if you have a tape player but she brought the tape anyways. Am I forgetting anything?"

"If she does get hungry what does she eat?"

"Anything really. Nothing with too much sugar or else she'll be bouncing off the walls" said Stephen, "I think that's everything. I've gotta go. Hailey, be a good girl, ok? Daddy will be back in a little while."

"Ok. Bye Daddy" said Hailey, giving Stephen a hug goodbye.

Stephen said thanks and left for his date.

"So where were we?" I asked.

"We where gonna play Barbie" said Kara.

"Can I be Stacey?" asked Hailey, sitting down next to Kara at the coffee table.

"I guess I'll be this Barbie" I said, picking up some random doll. I sat down at the end of the table that was near the play pin.

"That's not Barbie" said Kara.

"Well, then who is it?" I asked. To me they where all Barbie. I didn't really know which one was which but I guess I had to learn this kind of stuff if Davanee was going to play with Barbies.

"That's Skipper. That's Barbie's sister. Here, you be Ken 'cause you're a boy and boys can only be Ken" said Kara, replacing Skipper with Ken. We played Barbies for what seemed like forever. I had no idea there where so many rules when playing Barbie.

"Lets play something else" said Hailey.

"Alright, what do you want to play?" I asked.

"Lets play tea party" suggested Kara. Great. Another girly game.

"Tea party! Tea party!" chanted Hailey.

"But we don't have any tea cups" I said. I was hopping that once they learned we didn't have tea cups, they would lose interest in the game.

"That's ok, we can use plastic cups" said Kara. So I got a bunch of plastic cups from the kitchen and filled them with water.

"I wanna be the queen" said Kara.

"What about Hailey? What's she gonna be?" I asked.

"Pwincess" replied Hailey.

"You can be da king" said Kara, handing me a fake crown. She brought a bunch of dress up stuff with her for some reason. She pushed it down on my head, messing up my hair that I had spent thirty minutes on.

"What about Davanee? What can she be?" I asked, fixing the crown so that it wasn't covering my eyes.

"She's too little to play tea party" said Kara.

"Yeah. She too wittle" said Hailey.

We played tea party for about thirty minutes or so, sipping our water and talking in fake English accents. It actually wasn't that bad.

When we where in the middle of our game, Soda and Steve walked in.

"Having fun, Pony?" asked Soda.

"I never knew you liked to play tea party" said Steve.

"Oh, look girls, it's the village idiots" I said in a fake English accent.

Steve was about to hurt me but then I said "there's little eyes watching. I don't think that's a good idea."

"Pway wid us" said Hailey.

"Yeah, you can be the peasants. All the important people are taken" said Kara. So Soda and Steve sat down and played tea party with us which was kind of funny to watch. About twenty minutes later, the girls got bored with tea party. They wanted to watch Cinderella.

"Can you guys put the tape in while I put Davanee to bed?" I asked.

Davanee and I did our nightly bedtime routine while the others watched Cinderella. I kissed Davanee goodnight and joined the others in the living room.

In about an hour or so, Hailey and Kara where asleep in front of the TV. I turned the TV off and read a book while I waited for Stephen and Two-Bit to pick them up.

I was right in the middle of the best part of my book when I heard a knock on the door. It was Stephen.

"Hey" I said.

"Hey" said Stephen, "how was she?"

"She was good. We didn't have any problems. She's asleep on the floor" I said, opening the door a little wider so that Stephen could come in.

"Thanks for babysitting. My girlfriend would've killed me if I had to cancel again" said Stephen, picking up Hailey.

"Is that because you can't find a babysitter?" I asked.

"Part of it. She doesn't really understand sense she doesn't have kids. Well, thanks for watching her. It's getting late so we should start heading home" said Stephen, making his way to the door.

"Wait" I said. I grabbed Hailey's tape out of the tape player. "Don't forget this" I said, handing Stephen the tape. He said thanks and left. I figured it was going to be a while before Two-Bit got back so I moved Kara to the couch and covered her up with a blanket. Little kids look so cute when they're asleep.


	11. We'll be ok

Chapter 11

We'll be ok

SODA'S POV

A couple of days later, Pony started giving Davanee baby food. It was funny to see her spit up on him the first couple of times.

"So what are you doing tonight?" asked Pony, trying to get Davanee to eat.

"Steve and I are going to a party at Buck's place. You can come if you want" I offered.

"I dunno. I guess I could if Darry or Anya can baby-sit" said Pony.

"Good, you need to get out of the house. You haven't been out with the gang in God knows how long" I said.

"Thanks for pointing it out" said Pony. Pony finally got Davanee to open her mouth and he shoved the spoon in once she did. She made a funny face but kept whatever she was eating in her mouth.

"I don't think she likes that" said Pony.

"What are you feeding her anyways?" I asked, leaning against the kitchen counter.

Pony picked the jar up and said "carrots."

"That doesn't look like carrots" I said.

"Of course it doesn't. It's baby food" said Pony.

I left Pony and Davanee in the kitchen. I had to finish getting ready to go out. I threw on a clean shirt and a pair of jeans. It took me almost twenty minutes for me to do my hair. I am very particular about my hair. It has to look absolutely perfect before I go out. I know it sounds like a weird thing to obsess about but I really don't have much else to be crazy about aside from Sandy.

Steve arrived at our house around 7 and we left at about 7:20.

We got to Buck's around 8ish. There where a ton of people there. There was cheep Hank Williams music blaring from inside.

PONY'S POV

Steve and Soda went off to play pool, leaving me alone in a room filled with a bunch of skanky girls. I sat down on one of the couches that was in a far corner of the room. I sat by myself for a long time until one of the skanky girls noticed me sitting by myself.

She was a greaser no doubt. She was medium height with long, blonde hair that went down to the middle of her back. She could've been real pretty if she didn't wear so much make up and if she didn't wear such skanky clothes. She had on a mini skirt and cut off shirt.

She walked over to the couch and sat down next to me.

She said "hi."

"Hi."

"My name's Carly. What's yours?"

"Ponyboy."

"Ponyboy. That's a cool name."

"Thanks" I said, scooting a little further down the couch. Of course, she moved closer to me.

"How old are you, Ponyboy?"

"14."

"17. You in high school or junior high?"

"High school" I replied.

"Really? You know most girls find a smart guy hot" whispered Carly in my ear. I shuddered slightly. I turned to look at her but before I could say anything she started kissing me. We kissed for a long time.

We stopped kissing and she looked at me. She smiled slightly and started leading me upstairs. I was about to go with her but then a picture of Davanee flashed through my mind. I could see her sitting on the living room floor, playing with some of her toys. She stopped, looked at me, and giggled and smiled. But then the picture changed. It was a couple years down the road. She looked to be about ten or so. She was outside playing with a girl who looked to be a little younger then her. The little girl looked just like Davanee. Both of the girls stopped and looked at me. "Hey Dad" said both of the girls. Then it changed again, about 5 or 6 more years down the road. Both Davanee and the other girl where sitting out on the front porch. "How come you never told us?" asked Davanee.

I stopped myself before I was about to make the same mistake again.

"What's wrong?" asked the girl.

"I can't" I replied.

"Why not? You're not shy, are you?" asked Carly.

"No, I'm not. I just can't do this again. I'm sorry but you'll have to find someone else to be your entertainment tonight" I replied. Carly looked at me funny before storming off and finding some other guy to hook up with.

I walked out of that party by myself. I figured it wasn't worth ruining Steve and Soda's night. They can stay and have their fun. Besides, Steve would probably hurt me if they had to leave on the count of me. Surprisingly, I got home that night without getting jumped or anything.

"Your back early" said Darry, who was trying to get Davanee to eat, "something wrong?"

"No. I just wasn't havin' that much fun. Has she eaten anything?" I asked, walking into the kitchen.

"No. I can't get her to eat a thing" said Darry.

"Here, let me try" I said. Darry got up and handed me the spoon. I got her to eat on the first try.

"How'd you do that?"

"I dunno" I replied.

I finished feeding Davanee while Darry watched the 9 o'clock news which is weird because he never watches the news. He normally reads about it in the newspaper. I gave Davanee her bath, put her in her pajamas, and rocked her in her room. She liked to be rocked every night.

"Tonight's been a long night" I said, looking down at Davanee while she looked up at me with those greenish-gray eyes. 'She has my eyes' I thought to myself, 'I've never noticed that before.'

"Your dad could've done something real stupid again. You see, I met this girl and we started kissin' and I thought 'well, this is ok just as long as it doesn't go any further' but it turned out she did want to go further and she started draggin' me upstairs. And the bad part about this situation is is that I wanted to go but then I saw you. I saw you now, when you're 10, and 15, trying to explain the mistake I made. But don't get me wrong, your not a mistake. I would never say that to you, unlike Johnny's parents. I'd never hurt you either. How could someone hurt something so innocent and cute?" Before I could say anything more, I noticed that Davanee had fallen asleep. I gently placed her in her crib so that I wouldn't wake her.

"I figured there was another reason why you came home early tonight" said Darry from behind me. I turned around to see him leaning against the door frame.

"How much of that did you hear?"

"All of it. You know when she first came here I thought 'there's no way he can do this. He's just a kid' but as the weeks went on and I saw how well you where handling it I started to think that maybe you do know what your doing" said Darry.

"To be honest, I don't. I'm just going by what I think is right" I said, walking out of Davanee's room, "but I think we'll be ok."

"Me too."


	12. happy halloween

Chapter 12

The next couple weeks where pretty uneventful. Anya stopped by a couple of times. We took Davanee to the park and the Tastee Freeze but that was pretty much it. Night school was going pretty good. We got the night off for Halloween.

To me it didn't really seem like Halloween. It was hot and muggy outside. Darry and Soda both had to work that day so that left me to get the candy for tonight. I was excited about tonight. I mean, I'm always excited about Halloween but this one was special. It was Davanee's first Halloween.

Davanee and I were just about to leave to go to the store when Two-Bit and Johnny showed up.

"Where you goin'?" asked Two-Bit.

"We where gonna go to the store to get some candy and a costume. You wanna come?"

"Sure. We can take the car" said Two-Bit.

"We can't" I said.

"Why not?" asked Johnny.

"'Cause her car seat is in Darry's truck" I pointed out. Both Two-Bit and Johnny said oh. So we ended up walking to the store. Two-Bit and Johnny picked out the candy while Davanee and I picked out a costume. I had never noticed there where so many costumes for babies. None of them really appealed to me but Davanee seemed to like one. It was a pumpkin that had the face of a jack-o-lantern.

"This one?" I asked, holding it up in front of her. She smiled. I guess that meant yes since she couldn't talk yet. I wanted her to start talking soon but I was in no hurry for her to start talking back to me. That I could wait for.

We met Two-Bit and Johnny over in the candy idle.

"Where's your costume?" asked Two-Bit.

"Don't you think I'm a little too old to be dressing up for Halloween?" I asked.

"No. I still dress up. I have no idea what I'm gonna be this year."

"I've got an idea. Why don't you go as a Mickey Mouse loving Greaser with long side burns? Oh wait a minute, you already are" I said.

"Oh ha ha, very funny" said Two-Bit.

"Are we almost done here 'cause we still gotta get a pumpkin" I said.

"Yeah, we're done. Here's the candy" said Johnny, holding up a bag that had a bunch of different kinds of candy.

"Get two" I said. We always had a lot of kids come to our house on Halloween. We bought the costume and the candy and left. Next stop, the pumpkin patch. When we got there, all that was left where the bruised pumpkins. Serves us right to wait until the last minute to get a pumpkin. I let Davanee play around in the little play center they had for the kids while Two-Bit and Johnny picked out a pumpkin. Davanee kept picking up the little pumpkins and tried to eat them or she looked at them like 'what the heck is this?' She threw it down and continued playing with the hay. She liked it when I tickled her with a piece of hay.

Once Two-Bit and Johnny where done picking out a pumpkin, we left. When we got home, Darry and Soda where already home, ready to carve the pumpkin. Davanee watched with wide eyes as Darry and Soda carved the seeds out of the pumpkin. None of us ate pumpkin seeds so we threw them away. Darry and Soda finished carving the pumpkin while I dressed Davanee in her pumpkin costume. It was getting dark out which meant people would be here soon.

"Your not dressing up?" asked Soda.

"Not this year. Maybe next year" I said.

"She looks cute" said Soda, gesturing to Davanee.

"Yeah she does. Where's the camera?"

"It's in the closet."

I opened the hall closet and found Dad's old camera. Before he died, he didn't really have time to take a whole lot of pictures so it had a lot of dust on it. I dusted it off and took a few pictures of Davanee on her first Halloween. Once we where done taking pictures, we joined the rest of the gang outside on the porch. Of course, none of them had dressed up either. I think most of them found the whole concept of dressing up for Halloween stupid.

I let Davanee play with one of the old trick-or-treat buckets while the rest of us handed out candy to the little kids.

"So why aren't you taking the kid out?" asked Dallas.

" 'Cause there's really no point. She can't eat candy yet. Next year I will" I said.

Just then, I saw someone very familiar coming up the walk.

It was Anya.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"What, are you not happy to see me?" asked Anya as she approached the front porch.

"No I am, it's just that I haven't seen you in a while. What have you been up to?"

"Nothin' really, just takin' Hailey trick-or-treatin' for Stephen. He had to work late tonight" explained Anya, "so who are all these people?"

"Well this is the gang. That's Darry, Soda, Johnny, Dallas, Steve, and Two-Bit. Guys this is Anya" I said, pointing to each one as I said there names.

"We've heard a lot about you" said Soda.

"Like what?" asked Anya.

"How pretty you are, how you're always over here when we're not, how you two kissed" said Soda.

"You told them about that?" asked Anya in a rather mad tone.

"I didn't think you'd mind. Your not mad are you?"

"Uh, kinda. You're not suppose to kiss and tell" said Anya.

"I didn't mean to. They kinda forced it out of me" I said.

"Right" said Anya, just before walking off to the next house, Hailey trailing behind.

"You had to go and open your big moth, didn't you?" I snapped.

"Sorry. How was I suppose to know she'd get mad like that?" asked Soda. I walked back up to the porch and sat down in the rocking chair.

"Hey, Pony?" asked Johnny.

"What?" I replied.

"Look" said Johnny, pointing at the baby.

I looked down at Davanee. She was crawling right towards me.

"She's crawling" I said, a smile creeping across my face.

I scooped her up and gave her a bunch of kisses.

"Looks like we'll hafta drag those baby gates out" I said, "she's mobile now."

I let Davanee crawl around the porch for the rest of the night, careful not to let her go down the stairs. Once the kids stopped coming, we went back inside. I gave Davanee a bath and put her to bed but she wouldn't fall asleep.

"You know your really growin' up. It seems like just last week I was holdin' ya for the first time and now your crawlin'. Do me a favor and slow down a little, will ya?" I asked, messing up her hair, well it really wasn't hair. It was more like peach fuzz. She giggled slightly. She always giggled when people rubbed her head like that.

I smiled and gave her a kiss goodnight.

"Night baby" I said, turning out the lights. I stepped outside her room and closed the door quietly.

"She asleep?" asked Soda.

"Yeah. Took her a little while though" I said, "I'm gonna go to bed. I'm pretty tired." I said goodnight to everybody and went to bed. As soon as I laid down, I was asleep. I had no idea I was that tired.


	13. They can't do that, can they?

Chapter 13

The next couple of weeks where uneventful. School was pretty boring as usual until one night when the teacher announced they would be adding a new, mandatory class.

"Starting next week" began Mr. Symes "you will be taking a Sex Education class. It will take up the last hour of night school. It is a mandatory class which means everybody must take it. Mrs. Rose, the sophomore guidance counselor, will be the teacher." I could feel about a million eyes on me. I slid down in my seat. After Mr. Symes made the announcement we where dismissed.

I was standing outside, waiting for Soda to pick me up when I over heard two girls talking.

"I bet I know why they're making us take that stupid class" said one of the girls. Both of them looked older then me. Juniors probably.

"Why?"

"I'll give you a hint. He's standing right over there" said the same girl. The other one turned her head slightly and I pretended not to notice.

"Oh yeah" said the other.

They both started walking my way. I pretended not to see them.

"So, about that class" said the one girl, loud enough for me to hear, "I think it'll be interesting."

"Yeah me too. But I think it might be kinda pointless. It's a little too late for some of us" said the other girl, bumping into me, causing me to drop all my books. "Oops, sorry."

Sorry? Yeah right. I started picking up my books. As I did, I could feel tears coming. I quickly looked around to see if anybody was watching. I waited till the girls where gone, then I just let the tears go. I got down on the hard, cement and curled up in a bawl. I was tired. Not just physically but mentally. I was tired of all the things people where saying about me. I was tired of all the stares I got from people whenever I took Davanee out. I was tired of people judging me before they knew me.

I stopped crying when I saw Soda's car pull up in front of the school. I wiped the tears away and got in the car.  
"Hey, how was it?" asked Soda, speeding out of the parking lot.

"Fine" I replied, leaning my head against the window.

"Hey, I brought someone to see ya."

"Who?"

"Look in the backseat."

I looked in the backseat to see Davanee sitting in her car seat.

"Hey baby" I said, reaching behind the seat to rub her head.

"You know, she's not suppose to be out this late" I said.

"Yeah, I know, but I figure it would be good for you to see her. It looks like you've had a long night" said Soda.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah. Your eyes are really red. You been cryin'?"

"No. Just tired."

"Ok but you know I'll get it outa ya sooner or later."

I didn't say anything. It was quiet the rest of the car ride except for Davanee making baby noises. When we got home, I took Davanee inside and put her to bed without saying anything. I was tired and I didn't feel like talking.

As soon as Davanee fell asleep, I walked into my room and threw myself down on the bed. I just stared at the ceiling until I slowly drifted into a coma like sleep.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of the whole gang out in the living room. "It must be late" I thought, "and it must be Saturday." Saturdays and Sundays are the only days that the gang comes over in the mornings. I sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I shuffled out to the kitchen only to find Soda making breakfast and Two-Bit attempting to feed Davanee.

"Mornin' sleepin' beauty" said Soda.

"Mornin'" I said, yawning.

"We was wonderin' when we where gonna see you this mornin'. Ya hungry?"

"Not right now. Where's Darry?"

"He had to go to work today. I gotta go to work too" said Soda.

"Why?"

"Saturday is the busiest day at the station" said Soda.

"Hey, Pony?" said Two-Bit.

"What?"

"She's not eating . She hasn't eaten this mornin'. Can you come do this?"

"Yeah, sure." Two-Bit got up so I could sit down. Of course, she opened her mouth for me on the first try. I was the only one who could get her to eat so far.

"How'd you do that?" asked Two-Bit.

"I dunno. She only eats for me I guess" I said.

We finished up breakfast and Davanee and I went to the park. To my surprise, I saw Anya and Hailey there. Anya was pushing Hailey on the swings.

"What are you doing here?" asked Anya.

"It's a park. Am I not allowed to be here?" I asked.

"No, your allowed to be here."

"Look, I'm sorry about the other night. Soda has a big mouth."

"It's ok, I guess. I guess I kinda over reacted. It's just, it's been a really bad week for me. I mean, my parents have been fighting a lot lately and Tommy's been real sick and I've had to baby sit Hailey every night."

"Why?" I asked, pushing Davanee in one of those swings for babies.

"Stephen's been real busy lately. Work, school, girls, all that stuff. His parents would watch her but they've gotta work too. It's almost like he's acting like he doesn't have a kid, ya know?"

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Maybe you should talk to him about that" I suggested.

"I dunno. Stephen and I have been friends for a long time and I don't want to lose him as a friend."

"Yeah but if you two have been friends for a long time he might listen to you" I said.  
"That's true but I dunno. He doesn't like listening to people. He doesn't like being told what to do."

"Who does?" I asked.

"Nobody I guess. But I mean, he really doesn't like it. He practically throws a fit if you tell him what to do."

"Like a two year old does?" I asked.

"Yeah, kinda like that" said Anya, laughing slightly.

"Anya?" asked Hailey.

"Yes?"

"I hungry."

"We didn't bring any snacks, babe" said Anya, lifting Hailey off the swing.

"There's a Tastee Freeze right around the corner" I suggested.

"I don't have any money."

"I do. Come on, it'll be my treat" I said. Anya thought about it for a minute before finally saying "ok."

I put Davanee back in the stroller and we made our way to the Tastee Freeze with Hailey helping me push the stroller. I don't know what it is about little kids and wanting to push strollers and shopping carts.

"So what have you been up to these past couple of weeks?" asked Anya.

"Nothing really. I started giving Davanee baby food and have had to change my shirts about five times a day since."

Anya laughed and said "she'll stop spitting up eventually. Hailey did."

"I spit up?" asked Hailey.

"Yes, you use to spit up. All babies spit up" said Anya.

"I not a baby no more" said Hailey.

"Nope, you're a big girl now" I said.

"Are we almost there?" asked Hailey.

"Yeah, we're here" I said. To my surprise, there weren't a whole lot of people there. We walked in and took a seat at one of the booths that was kinda in the corner.

"I been here before" said Hailey.

"When?" asked Anya.

"Daddy take me here for birfday."

"Cool. So, what are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?" I asked.

"Well, nothing really. My family doesn't really go all out for the holidays and Tommy's spending the holidays with his girlfriend's family this year."

"You know, you and Hailey are welcome to come over to our house" I offered. It was the least I could do after hearing she didn't have anybody to spend Thanksgiving with.

"Are you sure? Aren't you going to have a lot of people over there already?"

"What's two more people? Besides, we're use to having a full house. Come on, it'll be fun. Holidays are always fun at our house" I said.

"Alright if you insist. But I dunno about Hailey. I'd have to ask Stephen. I'm sure he'll say yes but just to be sure, ya know?"

Anya and I talked for a little while longer while Hailey played with some of Davanee's toys. Sure they where babies toys but they kept her entertained. After about an hour or so, we decided to leave. The place was getting really crowded anyways. As we where walking home it started to rain. We tried to get home as fast as we could but we still got soaked.

"So, I'll see you later?" asked Anya.

"Yeah. You can stay if you want" I offered. I didn't want her and Hailey walking home in the rain.

"Thanks but I gotta get Hailey home. Maybe some other time" said Anya as she and Hailey walked off the porch. I stood on the porch, waved goodbye, and watched them disappear down the sidewalk. I took Davanee inside, dried her off, and put her down for a nap.

"You two make up?" asked Soda quietly so that he wouldn't wake Davanee.

"Yeah" I replied.

"I'm sorry about Halloween" said Soda.

"It's ok. You didn't know she was going to react like that" I said, walking out of the nursery. There was a moment of silence between us. I looked up at Soda and noticed an apprehensive look on his face. Something was bothering him.

"You ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess. I dunno."

"What's wrong?"

"The people from the state are coming to check up on us this week. They always come on the first Wednesday of every month and the first Wednesday is the day after tomorrow."

"Yeah, so?" We've had the people from the state come and check in on us before. I didn't see why this would be bothering Soda now.

"Well, what if they decide to take Davanee away? What if they think you're not a good parent?" asked Soda. I hadn't thought about that. They couldn't take Davanee away from me, could they? I mean, I've never done anything that would get my in trouble with the cops or anything. Darry would kill me if I ever went to jail. My record was totally clean.


	14. you never know

Chapter 14

I was dressed in my best, well almost my best, when the social worker came. Everybody looked nice. Even Davanee. She was wearing a pink dress with little pink shoes with her blond hair combed neatly. She didn't have that much hair yet so it wasn't hard to keep it neat.

I was out in the living room when the social worker knocked on the door. I opened the door to see a very stern looking women. She looked old. 50's or 60's probably. Her face was wrinkled and her eyes looked like they where two pieces of coal. She had a strict look on her face. I could tell this was not going to be good.

"Hello" said the woman, "I'm Mrs. Cameron. You must be Ponyboy."

"That's me" I said, "come in."

She walked in and took a long look around the living room. Then she looked at me.

"Where are your brothers?" she asked.

"They're still getting ready. They'll be out in a minute. You can sit down if you want. Would you like something to drink while you wait?" I asked.

"No thank you. I'm fine" said Mrs. Cameron, sitting on the couch. Before I could saying anything more, I heard Davanee crying from the other room. Soda had her in our room.

"I'll be right back" I said, walking out of the room. I walked back to my room as quickly as I could.

"What's wrong?" I asked, closing the door behind me.

"I dunno. She just started crying" said Soda.

"She's probably hungry. She hasn't eaten anything since lunch" I said, taking Davanee from Soda.

"That was only two hours ago" said Soda.

"Babies have to eat every two hours" I said, "you go out and talk to the social worker while I feed her, ok?"

"Ok." Soda walked out to the living room while I went to the kitchen.

_SODA'S POV_

"Where's your brother?" asked the lady.

"Oh, he had to go into the kitchen for a minute. He'll be out in a little while. I'm Soda" I said, smiling one of my famous smiles.

"You're the middle child, right?" asked the lady.

"Proud of it" I said, sitting down in Darry's chair.

"I'm Mrs. Cameron. I'll be checking up on you from now on."

"What happened to Mrs. Sylvia?" I asked.

"She retired last month" said Mrs. Cameron, "so, Soda, you work at the DX gas station, is that correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Aren't you suppose to be in school?"

"No ma'am, I dropped out."

"I see. And what made you decide to drop out?" asked Mrs. Cameron, adjusting her glasses slightly.

"To help bring in some sort of income. I couldn't leave that all up to Darry" I said.

"You like living with your brothers, don't you?" asked Mrs. Cameron. What kind of question was that? Of course I liked living with my brothers. It's beats staying in some boys home or some foster home with strangers.

"Yes, ma'am" I replied.

"And what do you think about the baby? Do you think your brother is a good parent?"

"Of course I do. I mean, he hasn't left her side since she was dropped on our doorstep. He's been up with her almost every night, he plays with her all the time. He even sings to her every night. She won't fall asleep if he doesn't. And on top of that, he has night school. I don't know about you but that sounds like a pretty good parent to me" I said.

"It sounds like a good parent to me too."

PONY'S POV

I finished feeding Davanee and walked into the living room. Soda took Davanee from me while the social worker asked me all kinds of questions.

"So, Ponyboy" began Mrs. Cameron, "Soda tells me you've started night school. How is that?"

"Pretty good so far. Straight A's in every class."

"How do you find the time to study when you have to take care of the baby?"

"Well, Soda and Darry usually watch her when I'm studying but aside from that, I always watch her."

"What about her mother? Is she around at all?"

"No. Her mom moved to California a couple of months ago. She never bothered to tell me she was pregnant."

"Oh, I'm sorry."  
"It's ok. It's not your fault" I said, leaning back in Darry's chair. Mrs. Cameron went on to ask standard, procedural questions like if I liked living with my brothers or if I thought Darry was a good guardian, stuff like that. By the time we where done, Darry was ready. Mrs. Cameron asked him questions while Soda and I waited in the kitchen.

"So how'd it go?" asked Soda.

"Fine. How'd it go with you?"

"Good. It's the same every time."

"Yeah, it wouldn't hurt if they changed the questions every once in a while" I said, hopping up on the counter. We waited in silence until Darry and Mrs. Cameron where done. I walked Mrs. Cameron out to her car.

"You know, Ponyboy, the state may decided to take Davanee away. They might think that this will be a good home for her."

"Well, what do you think?"

"I think this is a good home for her but my boss may think differently." With that, Mrs. Cameron got in her car and drove away. I walked into the house silently with my hands in my pockets.

"What'd she say?" asked Darry.

"She said that the state may take Davanee away anyways. She said they may think this isn't a good home for her" I said, sitting down on the couch. Davanee was on the floor, playing with some of her toys. The rest of the afternoon went by slowly. The gang didn't come over till later.

"So how'd it go today?" asked Johnny. Johnny and I where playing cards at the kitchen table. Davanee was in the living room with everybody else, playing with Soda's shoes that where sitting underneath the coffee table.

"Fine" I replied, "the same as it always is."

"What'd she say about Davanee?"  
"She just asked me stuff like if her mom was around. Stuff like that. I thought that question was a little too personal but I guess they had to know."

"Why would they have to know that?"

"I dunno" I replied. I looked over at Davanee and when she noticed I was looking, she smiled and laughed. I couldn't help but smile and laugh too.

"I don't think they'll take her away" said Johnny.

"Me neither but you never know."


	15. first word

I'm sorry about taking the other chapter down, the one about Davanee being taken away. I just couldn't get it to work. I hope you like this version better.

Chapter 15

I was a bit nervous about going to school that night. It was the first night of that sex ed.class. I think that was the first time I was nervous about a class. The night started out like it always does. We covered all the core subjects before the class. Then Mr. Symes left and Mrs. Rose, our guidance counselor, came in. I moved to the back of the class when she came in. It's not that I didn't like her or anything, it's just that I felt more comfortable back there away from everybody else.

"Good evening boys and girls. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Mrs. Rose. I know most of you but there are some new faces in here. Well, I don't know about you, but I hate these desk being in rows so lets move them in a circle." Well that totally defeats my idea of sitting in the back. I don't know why teachers have to move the desk. What's wrong with the way they are?

So I got up and moved my desk into the circle. We had to go around the circle and say our name and something interesting about us. There where a couple of new kids joining us for this particular class. What should I say? Should I say 'I'm Ponyboy Curtis and I have a daughter named Davanee Curtis?' or maybe 'I'm Ponyboy Curtis and I'm a greaser?' Which one do you think is better?

"I'm Ponyboy Curtis and I like to read." There. That sounded pretty good. When the others where done with their names and interesting facets, Mrs. Rose jumped right into the topic of the night. The topic that night was "relationships". Nice easy topic to start off with. Almost everybody knows at least something about being in a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Mrs. Rose loved to have us talk about what we thought about relationships (or whatever the topic was). I didn't say anything though. I thought it best that maybe I lay low. I would say something only if I really needed to, which didn't happen in the first class. I didn't really know all that much about having a girlfriend since I've never really had one, innless you count Anya. I mean, we weren't officially going out or anything.

Before I knew it, the class was over. That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. For some reason I thought it was going to be much worse. While I was waiting for Soda to pick me up, I saw Anya in sitting on one of the benches outside. It didn't look like she was with anyone so I decided to go sit with her.

"Is this seat taken?" I asked, pointing to the spot next to her.

"No. What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing. I'm here for night school. What are you doing here?"

"I had a deadline for Journalism and I had to stay late. I'm waiting for a friend to pick me up."

"I didn't know you where on the paper. What position?"  
"Entertainment editor. Not much I know but it's better then not being on the paper at all."

"You never told me you like to write" I said. Anya didn't appear to be the writing type.

"Just articles and stuff. I'm not really big into stories" said Anya, looking down at her feat.

"Something wrong?"

"No, just not feeling good. I think I caught what Tommy had."

"Probably. You don't look too good." Though it was dark outside, I could still see that she was really pale. She shouldn't of been out that late if she was sick.

"Maybe we should take you home" I said.

"Are you sure? I don't want to get all of y'all sick, especially since you have a baby."

"It's ok. We never get sick."

So on our way home, we stopped by Anya's house. The house was dark and the front yard was just random patches of grass. It looked a lot like Johnny's house.

"It doesn't look like anybody's home" I stated.

"That's probably a good thing. Thanks for taking me home" said Anya.

"No problem."

"See ya later." Anya marched up the stairs and disappeared into the darkness of the house. I stood on the walkway for a little while until I heard the car horn from behind me. I climbed back into the car.

"What was that all about?"

"Sorry, just got distracted" I said.

"So, the state called while you where at school" said Soda, keeping his eyes on the road.

"What did they say?"

"They said that everything looked good. Looks like there not gonna take Davanee away after all."  
I sighed a sigh of relief. The rest of the car ride was silent. When I got home, I was shocked to see that Davanee was still awake. It was near midnight.

"What is she doing up?" I asked.

"We tried to get her to sleep but she wouldn't fall asleep" said Darry, handing Davanee to me.

"Has she had a bath?" I asked.

"Yeah, couple of hours ago" said Darry. I took Davanee to her room so that I could at least try to get her to fall asleep.

"Why do you have to give your Uncle Darry and Uncle Soda a hard time, huh? Come on, lets pick out a book." I got her favorite book, _Green Eggs and Ham, _and started reading it to her. She giggled when we got to the part about the train. She liked that part for some reason. I read it to her a couple more times. She usually falls asleep after the third or fourth time. When I was finished reading it for the third time, Davanee had a big smile on her face.

"What are you smiling at?" I asked, tickling her slightly. But then, she stopped laughing suddenly. She looked up at me with those hazel green eyes.

"Daddy?"


	16. don't complain

Chapter 16

"You said Daddy" I said aloud in disbelief, "you spoke."

"Daddy!" shrieked Davanee.

"Soda! Darry!" I yelled. Both Soda and Darry came running in, like something was wrong.

"What is it?" asked Darry.

"She spoke. She said Daddy. Listen."

We all listened for a little while and, unfortunately, she didn't say anything.

"I don't hear anything" said Soda.

"Just listen."  
So again we listened and again, nothing.

"Maybe you were just hearing things" said Darry, "you're probably tired."

"But I wasn't hearing things. She really did say daddy" I said.

"Sure. I'm gonna go to bed. It's getting late. You comin' Pony?" asked Soda.

"Yeah, I'll be in as soon as I get her to sleep" I said. I figured it wasn't worth arguing this late at night. We could always continue the argue the next morning. Both Soda and Darry left to go to bed.

"We'll show 'em tomorrow" I said, putting Davanee in her crib, "but now it's time for you to go to bed." I put her teddy bear and blanket in the crib with her. And of course, the night wouldn't be completely without the song. She went right to sleep after that. Once I was absolutely sure she was asleep, I changed into my pajamas and crawled into bed. Soda was already asleep when I came in.

I didn't sleep at all that night. Davanee woke up around one and wouldn't stop crying for the rest of the night. Luckily, she wasn't sick again. Unfortunately though, I had to make breakfast for everybody since I was the first one up. It was a miracle I didn't fall asleep during breakfast.

Darry woke up a little later than usual that morning which is weird because he never sleeps in.

"It's about time you got up" I said.

"Sorry, I over slept. Where is everybody?"

"Soda and Steve went to work, Two-Bit and Johnny went out, and Dallas hasn't been around at all so I don't know where he is. You want breakfast?"

"No. I'm not that hungry" replied Darry, "She keep you up all night?"

"Of course she did" I said, getting down on the floor next to Davanee. She squealed once she saw me and climbed right into my lap.

"She's a daddy's girl, that's for sure" said Darry, smiling slightly.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with her being a daddy's girl" I said, giving Davanee a kiss.

"Did I say there was anything wrong with her being a daddy's girl? It's kinda cute, actually" said Darry. He was right. Her being a daddy's girl was really cute.

"So do you have to work today?" I asked.

"Yeah. Speaking of which, I'm probably gonna be late if I don't get goin'." Darry quickly got dressed and grabbed the car keys off the counter.

"You should go down to see Soda and Steve a little later. She might like getting out of the house" said Darry before leaving.

"Alright. Bye."

"Bye." I heard the muffled sound of the car starting coming from the driveway. I got dressed and got Davanee ready to go. About an hour and a half later, we started making our way towards the DX. About a hundred ladies stopped us to tell me how cute Davanee was. I smiled and said "thank you" as politely as I could. But what I really wanted to say was "I know. I'm not blind." When we got to the DX, Davanee smiled. She liked going to see Soda at work. Instead of going in through the front of the station, I decided to go in though the garage. I found Steve working on one of the cars.

"Where's Soda?" Steve nearly jumped at the sound of my voice.

"Damn it! Don't do that" said Steve, slightly pissed off.

"Sorry. Where's Soda?"

"He's up front, why?"

"Just wondering" I said, taking Davanee out of the stroller. I left the stroller out in the garage and took Davanee to see Soda. He was busy with a customer so we had to wait a little while.  
"God, I thought she'd never leave" said Soda once he was done with the customer, "why can't little kids just leave me alone?" Soda was adored by everybody, especially 13 year old girls. Before I started going to night school, all the girls would ask me about him. I was kinda disappointed that they wouldn't ask me about me but I guess it doesn't matter now.

"I brought somebody to see you" I said. Davanee was reaching out towards Soda, which normally meant she wanted him to hold her. I gave the baby to Soda. My arms where starting to get tired. As soon as Soda had her, she pulled his hat off and somehow it landed on her head.

"Maybe we need to get her a DX hat. She seems to be attached to mine" said Soda, "so what have you guys been up to all day?"

"Nothing much."

Soda looked down at his feet. He had this expression on his face that said something was wrong. He would have been smoking but since Davanee was there he didn't.

"Can I tell you something?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure." He knows he can tell me anything. Why would he need to ask?

Soda practically pushed me into one of the rooms where they keep all of the supplies for the front of the station.

"You've got to promise me your not gonna tell Darry, ok?"

"Ok. What is it?"

Soda took a deep breathe. He looked a bit hesitant, as if he didn't want to say it. But whatever it was had to come out sooner or later. It might as well be sooner rather than later.

"Sandy stopped by today. She said she's pregnant and it could be mine."

"What?" I asked in disbelief.

"I dunno. She said she wasn't sure but there's a pretty good chance that it's mine. What am I gonna do Pony? I can't be a dad. I'm not ready. I'm scared."

"I know how you feel. Soda, I can't really do anything at the moment to help you. But I will say that, if you are the father, it's not going to be easy. I mean, you've seen what I have to go through every night. And then there's all the other stuff."

"What other stuff?"

"Oh I don't know, the stares, the judgment, the occasional name calling. All that other stuff. Look, I'm not trying to scare you or anything but it's true. But who knows? Maybe there's nothing to be scared about. I mean, she did say there's a possible chance that it isn't yours, right?"

"Yeah but still. I mean, what if it is? I can barely baby sit, let alone be responsible for another person. How do you do it?"  
"I dunno, I just kinda go by what I think is right and what mom and dad did to us when we were little" I said, taking Davanee from Soda. She started crying. Both Soda and I walked out of the room to the front of the store.

"If it is mine" continued Soda, "will you help me? You know more about this stuff then I do."

"Of course I'll help" I said, giving Davanee her bottle.

Soda smiled and said "thanks."

The rest of the afternoon went by slow. About every girl who came in the store had to stop and admire Davanee. Davanee would just smile and laugh and sometimes try to carry on a conversation which, of course, didn't work because it was just baby talk. She must of gotten the social thing from her mom because I for one am not that social with complete strangers.

Around 3 or so, Johnny and Dallas stopped by.

"How's the kid?" asked Dal.

"Which one?" I asked. He called me a kid sometimes.

"Both."

"Fine I guess. I heard you got in trouble yesterday" I said.

"Yeah. Got in a fight with Shepard again."

"What'd you do to him?"

"Slashed his tires." Now, you may think slashing tires is no big deal but to us and guys like Tim, it is. Tires ain't that cheep.

"Tim give you that black eye?" I asked.

"No, that's from getting jumped. I was walkin' over to the Dingo yesterday and got jumped by a couple of socs. It wasn't that bad though."

"Were you walkin' by yourself?"

"No, Two-bit was with me. We could take 'em. It was three to two." Dallas smiled, as if proud of beating those socs. But then again, knowing him he probably was proud. We stuck around the DX for another hour or so until it was time for Soda and Steve's shifts were done.

"You goin' home?" asked Soda.

"No, I think I'm gonna take her to the park first." Right after I said that, Davanee started crying, reaching out for Soda.

"I think she wants to go with you."

"She can come with us if she wants" said Soda, "we're just goin' to the Tastee Freeze."

"You walkin' there?"

"Might as well, it's not that far." So I let Soda and Steve take Davanee. Besides, it had been a long time since I hadn't had a baby attached to my side. And it had been an even longer time since I could smoke too. We walked around for a little while, drifting from the park to the lot and then, eventually, to the road that led to my house.

We were walking along quietly when a blue mustang turned the corner. It was fast at first but when it was right behind us, it slowed down.

"Should we run?" asked Johnny.

"There's no use" I replied. We stopped and, of course, the car stopped too.

Four socs stepped out. There where three of us and four of them. I figured the odds where as even as they could get.

"Well, looky what we got here" said one. He voice was slurred a little which probably meant he had been drinking.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Nothin'. We was just hopin' to have a little fun with ya" said another, his voice a little more slurred then the others.

"Over my dead body" I said.

"Be careful with what you say. It might just come true."

"Look, we're exhausted so why don't you just make this easy on us" said the first one.

"Your exhausted?" I asked.

"Yeah. We was out partying all night last night or was it early this morning?" asked another.

"You where out partying all night and you're complaining about being exhausted? Funny, ya know, because I'm exhausted too. But I was up all night with a baby who doesn't sleep anymore. Don't start with me when you say your tired from partying. I was up all night with a screaming baby who cries whenever she's alone. You, however, where probably having fun. Drinking beer, making out, possibly more, that right?" I asked, crossing my arms.

The socs started at me for a moment before finally nodding 'yes.'

"Thought so. So why don't you just get back in your car and get out of here. And oh yeah, the next time you want to complain to me about being tired, you better have a better reason then partying all night."

Without saying a word, the socs got back in the car and sped off down the road.

"Damn, Curtis. I never knew you had it in you" said Dallas.

"Yeah. Where'd all that come from?"

"I told you. I'm tired because Davanee was crying all night and she wouldn't stop" I replied, "now I don't know about you but I'm going home."


	17. the flu or something like it

Chapter 17

That afternoon I went home and slept for what seemed like weeks when it was only a couple of hours. When I woke up, I had a terrible headache, my nose was stopped up, and my throat hurt. 'I can't be getting sick' I thought, 'not before Thanksgiving.' Thanksgiving was only a couple of days away. I slowly dragged myself out of bed. To my surprise, the gang wasn't in the living room. There was only Soda and Davanee. Darry was in the kitchen making dinner.  
"It's about time you got up. You sleep good?" asked Darry.

"No, not really. I don't feel good."

"You're not running a fever, are you?" asked Darry.

"I dunno. I just got up."

Darry handed me the thermometer from the medicine cabinet. I stuck it in my mouth and waited for a little while.

"102" I read aloud.

"Maybe you should go back to bed so you don't get everyone else sick" suggested Darry.

"Ok. You guys mind watching her for a little while longer?" I asked.

"Not at all. Now go back to bed before you get Davanee sick. We can handle you being sick but we can't handle you and Davanee being sick at the same time" said Darry. He did have a point. I would love to see those two handle a sick baby. So I went back to bed and slept the rest of the night. But of course, Davanee started crying around 3 or 4. I was about to get up but Soda stopped me.

"You stay here. You're sick. I'll get her."

I said "thanks Soda" and went right back to sleep. I didn't wake up till ten the next. Unfortunately, I felt much worse. Not only was my nose stopped up and my head and throat hurt but I was coughing, I was tired, and everything hurt. But, I still had to get out of bed.

As usual, Darry was cooking breakfast in the kitchen while the rest of the gang was in the living room.

"You feelin' any better?" asked Darry.

"No. I'm feelin' worse."

"I called the doctor. You have an appointment today at 2. Soda's gonna take you."

"Doesn't he hafta work today?"

"Not today" replied Soda from the living room, "I have the day off."

I just shrugged and went back to my room. I climbed back in bed. For some reason, I was freezing cold. I slept for most of the day, that is until Soda came in and woke me up so I could get ready for my doctor's appointment.

Getting a shower felt really good. Getting a shower always feels good when your sick and it helps. I pulled on some clothes, shoes, and waited for Soda in the living room. I brushed my hair but I didn't bother putting grease in it.

"Hey soda" I called, or at least I tried to call.

"What?" asked Soda.

"Where's Davanee?"  
"Oh, Johnny and Two-bit are watching her until we get back."

"You let Two-bit watch her? Are you crazy?"

"It's just for an hour. Besides, it's not like it's just Two-bit who's watching her. Johnny's watchin' her too." That did make me feel a little bit better.

About ten minutes later, Soda and I where on our way to the doctor's office. It's kinda funny that Davanee and I have the same doctor. We waited in the waiting room for what seemed like forever, amongst all the little kids and their runny noses.

"Ponyboy Curtis?" asked the nurse.

"That's me" I said, getting up. Soda and I followed the nurse back to an exam room. We waited even longer for Dr. Irene. I started to think that she would never come until finally I saw the door handle move slightly.

"Ponyboy" said Dr. Irene, "it's been a while. How are things going?"

"Fine I guess. I'm sick but Davanee's ok."

"I guess that would explain why you're here. What's the problem?"

"I dunno really. I went to go take a nap yesterday and when I woke up I was running a fever. So I went back to bed and when I woke up this morning I felt worse. It's like headache, stomachache, soar throat, really tired, weak. Stuff like that."

"Sounds like the flu but let's take your temperature first." Dr. Irene stuck the thermometer in my mouth. We waited a couple minutes until she took the thermometer out.

"101" she said, "I'm going to write a prescription for an anti-biotic. This should go away in about 2 weeks."

"2 weeks? I can't be sick for two weeks. Thanksgiving is in a week. I got a kid to take care of."

"Well, I'm sure your brothers can handle things for a couple of days. Besides, you should be better by thanksgiving. Now your suppose to take this medicine every four hours. And don't take it on an empty stomach, it'll just make you even more sick. Now, if you don't mind, I have many more sick children to attend to today."

"That's ok, we understand. It's cold and flu season" I said, wiping my nose with a tissue.

"The worst season" said Dr. Irene, leaving the room

Soda and I went straight home. He was going to hang out with Steve for the rest of the day and I was going to bed.

I slept for what seemed like days when it was really just a couple of hours. Darry woke me up around 7. He brought me soup and that antibiotic the doctor prescribed. The medicine made me really sleepy so of course I fell back asleep. Surprisingly, I didn't wake up during the night but on a less positive note, Darry made me stay in bed all day. I'm not one of those kids who can sit at home all day in front of the TV. I have to be up and doing something.

"You can read" suggested Darry.

"Read what? There's nothing here" I said, crossing my arms, a bit angry. I think that was more the fever talking then me.

"Well, you're smart. I'm sure you'll find something. Now, I'm not gonna be home till late but if you need anything, you can call Soda at the DX, ok?"

"Ok. Who's watching Davanee?"

"Soda took her to work today and he said he'd watch her after he got home too. I gotta go or else I'm gonna be late."

"Ok, bye."

"Bye."

I could hear the front door shut. After that, the house was silent. It was never this quiet at the our house and quiet frankly, I liked it. It was nice to not have the gang over making a lot of noise. Not that I didn't like the gang or anything it's just that it was a nice change for things to be so quiet.

I didn't really do much that day. I mean, how much can a sick person do? I mostly read books all day. Fun, I know.

Soda and Davanee came home around 6:30.

"How ya feelin?" asked Soda, changing out of his work clothes.

"Sick" I replied, "how was work?"

"Fine. Your daughter was a bit of a handful today."

"Why? What'd she do?"

"Nothing really just got into stuff."

"What stuff?"

"For instance, she broke one of the Coke bottles in the front of the store. I picked up the glass before she got hurt" said Soda, pulling on a clean shirt.

"Well, that's good. I mean it's good that she didn't get hurt but bad that she broke the bottle" I said.

"It's ok. We've got more than enough Cokes." Soda seemed a bit distraught that night, like something was bothering.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah fine." At first I believed him but then something clicked. I remember him telling me a couple of days ago about Sandy being pregnant.

"Did you hear from Sandy today?"

"Yeah, she stopped by."

I waited for him to say more but he fell silent.

"Well, what'd she say?"

"She said her parents are thinking about sending her to Florida since she won't get an abortion. She said that her parents didn't want her to see me again. I can't stand not being around her." Just then, Davanee started crying. Soda had left her in her crib before he changed out of his work clothes.

"I'll get her" he said, walking out of the room. I could hear him talking to Davanee softly in the other room. I couldn't help but think that, if this baby is his, he would be a good dad. He seemed to be doing ok with Davanee and he was always careful with her.

I fell asleep before Darry came home that night. I woke up around 1 that night. I had another nightmare, but this time I remembered it. I dreamt that Jamie had come back and she tried to take Davanee away from me. She didn't want me to see Davanee again. I woke up in a cold sweat. 'It was just a dream' I thought to myself. But it seemed so real that I had to go in and check on Davanee.

She was sound as sleep in her crib with her Mickey mouse blanket and teddy bear.

"What are you doing up?" asked Darry from behind me. The sound of his voice made me jump slightly.

"I had a nightmare and I had to come and check on her. I actually remembered it this time. I dreamt her mom came back and tried to take her away."

"Well, she's safe and sound in her crib. How ya feelin'?"

"Better" I replied. Spending a whole day in bed helped.

"Good. Maybe you'll be better by thanksgiving after all." I smiled at the thought. I didn't want to miss Davanee's first thanksgiving.

I said goodnight to Darry and went to bed. To my surprise, I woke up early the next morning. I didn't feel too terrible but I still didn't feel all that great. But Darry sent me right back to my room. I had a fever of 100. I swear, if I had to stay in that room one more day I was going to die. You can only be cooped up in one room for so long.


	18. Maddie and Dillon

Chapter 18

I was better by Friday. Darry even let me go out. I went with Anya to that group thing she took me to a while back.

"I thought you weren't going to come back" said Anya as we walked to the meeting.

"I thought I wasn't but I decided to go. It's better then staying home and being sick all week" I said, pushing the stroller.

"I'm sorry I got you sick" said Anya.

"It's ok. It's not like you meant to. Besides, I'd rather it be me then her" I said, pointing to Davanee. I would hate for her to be sick again.

"True."

In a couple of minutes, we arrived at the meeting. This time their weren't so many people there. But their were a couple of new babies. I guess a bunch of the girls who were younger then me had their babies in my absence. Anya went off to talk to a bunch of her friends while I took a seat in one of the middle rows. While I was waiting for Anya to come sit down, another girl came and sat on the opposite side of me. She had a baby boy in her arms. The baby seemed fine until he started crying. The poor girl tried everything to get him to stop but he just kept crying. I reached into Davanee's baby bag and pulled out a little teddy bear.

"Try this" I said, handing her the bear.

"Thanks" said the girl. The baby stopped crying once he saw the bear.

"You can keep it if you want" I said.

"You sure?"

"We've got plenty more at home."

The girl leaned forward slightly to see Davanee.

"She's so cute. What's her name?"

"Davanee. I'm Ponyboy Curtis."

"Maddie Lane. This is Dillon (I just had to spell it like that)."

"How old is he?" I asked.

"1 month. What about her?"

"6 and ½ months. What about you? How old are you?" I asked. She didn't look that old.

"12" she replied, her head hanging a little low. I would hang me head too if I was 12 and had a 1 month old. I thought 14 was too young to have a baby, but 12 is WAY too young.

"14" I replied.

"Oh, well, that's better then 12" she said smiling weekly.

"Not sleeping, are you?"

"Haven't slept till the day he came home. If I fall asleep during this thing wake me up, ok?"

"Ok." Before I could say anything else, Anya sat down on the other side.

"Who's this?" asked Anya.

"Oh, Anya this is Maddie. Maddie this is Anya. She's new" I said.

"Nice to meet you" said Anya.

"Likewise" said Maddie. Before anybody could say anything more, the meeting started. It was the same as it was last time only, except for the new people that is. When the meeting was over, Anya had to say goodbye to all her friends.

"I'm gonna go" I said to Anya. Davanee started looking a little sleepy.

"Alright. Hey, you know how you invited Hailey and I over for Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah."

"Does that offer still stand?"

"Of course."

"Is it ok if we come over Sunday around 3?"

"Sure. We won't eat till 7 or 8. I'll see you then ok."

"Alright. Bye."

"Bye." I wrapped Davanee up before we stepped out. It was starting to get chilly out and it wasn't good for a baby to be out in the cold too long. Right as we where about to leave, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Maddie bouncing Dillon on her hip.

"Is it ok if we walk home with y'all. Our house is right down the street from yours" said Maddie.

"Sure." Funny thing is, I had never seen Maddie in our neighborhood before. 'Maybe she's new' I thought to myself. But still, just because your new doesn't mean you can't get out once in a while, right?

"So" I began, "have you lived in Tulsa long?"

"Practically my whole life. I've been here since I was 3" said Maddie.

"I've never seen you around our neighborhood. How come?"

"Well, we just moved in. We use to live in Soc territory but my dad lost his job and we had to move here."

"Welcome to greaser territory" I said.

"Thanks I guess" said Maddie, giving me a confused look.

"Don't worry, you'll get use to it."

"I dunno. Everything's been so hard lately. First, it was my mom dieing last year. Then my dad lost his job. Then we had to move. After that it was Dillon and his father leaving. And now it's school. I'm failing every subject because I don't get any sleep."

"Try night school. I worked for me" I said. Bringing up the topic of school reminded me that I had a bunch of make up work to do.

"You know, you're really nice" said Maddie, "most people would just give me a dirty look or rude comment. I lost a lot of my friends after Dillon was born, except for my best friend that is."

"Well, I kinda know what you're going through. I know how you feel."

"It's nice to know that I'm not the only one" said Maddie. In an odd way, Maddie reminded me of me when I first met Davanee. For a while, I felt lonely because no one else knew what I was going through. Maddie was right when she said it was nice to finally meet someone who knew what I was going through.

"I should probably get Dillon to bed" said Maddie, "thanks for walking with me."

"No problem" I said.

"Maybe I'll see you around sometime" said Maddie, walking a little further down the street.

"Maybe" I said, "bye."

"Bye." With that, Maddie vanished down the street. But then I thought of something.

"Wait!" I called.

Maddie stopped, turned around, and asked "what?"

"What are you doing for Thanksgiving?"

"Nothing. My dads' working. Why?"

"Do you and Dillon wanna come over to our house for dinner?"

Maddie thought about it for a couple of minutes before finally saying "sure." With that, she left for good. Her black, leather jacket blended in with the dark night. I watched until she was completely out of sight, then I turned and went inside the house.

"How was it?" asked Soda, who was pulling his shoes on while Steve and Two-Bit sat on the couch and watched TV.

"Fine. I met somebody."

"Who?" asked Soda.

"Her names' Maddie. She lives right down the street. She has a son named Dillon."

"How old is she?" asked Two-Bit.

"12. Too young for any of you" I said.

"Not too young for you" remarked Steve.

"True but I'm not interested."

"He already has a girl, remember?" said Soda, smiling a bit.

"Oh yeah, that Russian chick right?" asked Two-Bit.

"She's not Russian. Her name is Russian but she's not."

"Right" said Two-Bit, "would you date her if she was?"

"Does it really matter?" I asked.

"Of course it does" said Two-Bit.

"Well, to you maybe. To me, it doesn't. I'm gonna go put Davanee to bed" I said, taking Davanee to her room. I changed her into a new diaper and her pajamas.

"Let's read a book" I said, walking over to her bookshelf, "which book do you wanna read?" Of course she reached for _Green Eggs and Ham._

"Do we have to read that again? Daddy's so tired of _Green Eggs and Ham_ he's about ready to throw it away." Davanee continued to reach for the book.

"Alright, alright. We'll read it." I grabbed the book off the shelf and sat down in the rocking chair. Davanee loved to be rocked while I read to her.

She fell asleep after we read the book for the fifth time. I put the book back and put Davanee in her crib. I covered her up with her Mickey Mouse blanket and tip toed out of the room, turning the light off as I went.

"How come you don't read to us?" asked Two-Bit.

"Because you're not a baby. You can fall asleep without being read to" I said, sitting down on the couch.

"Tired?" asked Soda.

"No. Not after all the sleeping I've been doing over the past week" I said. I noticed that Soda had his shoes on. He never wore shoes unless he was goin' somewhere.

"Where ya goin'?" I asked.

"To see Sandy. She's stayin' over at a friends house tonight and she said I should go see her since we never get to see each other anymore" said Soda.

"Be careful, Soda" I said.

"What's that suppose to mean?" asked Steve.

"I just meant that Soda should be careful because Sandy could end up leavin' the baby with him, that is if it's his" I said, "could you imagine what it would be like if we had 2 babies around here?"

"No thanks. One is enough" said Soda.

"Thought so" I said.

"But I'm still goin' to go see her. Just to make sure she's alright." With that, Soda grabbed the car keys off the kitchen counter with Two-Bit and Steve following him out the door. I sat down on the couch and watched TV. I normally don't watch that much TV but I was tired and there was nothing better to do. I must've fallen asleep because I don't remember Darry coming home that night.

When I woke that morning, I found a blanket thrown across me and a pillow under my head.

"You must've been real tired to fall asleep on the couch" said Darry who was in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Must've" I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eye. I got up and walked into the kitchen. Davanee was sitting in her high chair, playing with some of her toys. She squealed and shrieked "daddy!" when she saw me.

"She's been doing that all morning" said Darry, "you weren't kidding when you said she could talk."

"And why would I joke about that?" I asked, lifting Davanee out of her high chair.

"I dunno" said Darry, shrugging his shoulders. I smiled slightly and took Davanee to her room to get her dressed. I placed her in her crib while I went to the closet to get her clothes. I picked out two shirts. For some reason I always liked to giver her a choice. One was a pink, long sleeve shirt with a butterfly on it and the other was a red, short sleeve shirt with a pink teddy bear that oddly looked like the one I gave her.

"Davanee which one do you……" when I turned around I saw that Davanee had pulled herself up. She was standing, with a little help from the crib that is. Davanee giggled when I showed her the pink shirt so of course we went with that one.

"Darry!" I called, still holding the shirts.

"What?" asked Darry from the kitchen.

"Come here, quick!"

Darry came running in.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Darry.

"Look."

Darry looked over towards Davanee.

"Did she do that when I was sick?"

"No. She's never done that before. She's learnin' somethin' new everyday, isn't she? You know, I'll bet she'll be real smart when she grows up."

"Of course she will" I said, lifting Davanee out of the crib.

"You know you can really see the resemblance" said Darry, "I mean, aside from the blonde hair and the fact that she's a girl, you two look almost exactly alike."

"Is that a good thing?" I asked.

"Of course" said Darry, "you know when you where born people said you looked a lot like Dad."

"Really?" I asked. I never really thought I looked like either one of my parents.

"Yeah." The room got real quite. It always got quiet whenever somebody mentioned Mom or Dad. I mean, it had only been a year since they died.

"Well, I better get to work" said Darry, "there's breakfast out in the kitchen if you want it. I'll see you later, ok?"

"Yeah ok" I said, changing Davanee into a shirt and jeans. I heard the front door slam and the car speed out of the driveway.

"You know" I said, "it's a shame you never got to know your grandparents. They would've loved to of met you." I remember that day like it was yesterday………….

_It seemed like a relatively normal day. I had tons of homework that night. I always have a lot of homework on Monday nights. I was sitting at my desk in my room when Soda came in._

"_Hey I'm goin' out. You wanna come?"_

"_Soda it's a school night."_

"_Yeah, so?"_

"_So, don't you have homework."_

"_Yeah but I'll do it later. Come on, come with. You can forget about homework for once." I thought about it for a moment. I had been doing a lot of school work lately._

"_Alright. Give me a couple minutes, will ya?"_

'_Sure." Soda grabbed his shoes and walked out to the living room. I pulled on a clean shirt and a clean pair of jeans. I was putting my shoes and socks on when I heard a knock on the door. Someone knocking on the door at our house was a rare occasion._

"_Soda, answer the door!" I yelled. Then I heard the knock again._

"_Soda?" I guess he was in the bathroom or something._

_I got up and answered the door. I opened the door to reveal two policemen._

"_Is this the Curtis residence?" asked one of the officers._

"_Yes. Why?"_

"_Are you Darryl Curtis?"_

"_No, I'm his brother Ponyboy."_

"_I'm afraid we have some terrible news." I opened the door a little wider so they could come in._

"_Hey Pony, who was at the door?" asked Soda, walking out to the bathroom._

"_Who is this?" asked the other officer._

"_This is my brother Soda."_

"_What's wrong?" asked Soda._

"_They have something to tell us" I said._

"_Boys" began the officer, "I'm sorry to say this but your parents where in a terrible car accident."_

"_Are they ok?" I asked._

_The policemen shook his head no. _

"_I guess they where coming home when it happened. They where crossing train tracks when the car broke down. They didn't make it out in time. I'm so sorry." I could feel my knees go week. I had to sit down for a minute or else I was gonna pass out. How could this happen? They where ok this morning. I saw them right before I left for school that morning. The last words I said to both of them where "see you when I get home." Little did I know I would never see them again._

I snapped out of the daydream when I heard the front door slam.

"Pony?" called Johnny.

"I here!" I called. I took Davanee off the changing table and took her out to the living room.

"What's up?" asked Johnny.

"Nothin' really just getting read to go out" I said.

"Where ya goin'?"

"I heard they were playin' _Marry Poppins _at the movie theatre today. I thought Davanee might like to see it. You wanna come?"

"Yeah I guess. I've got nothin' better to do. You think she's old enough?"

"Yeah. I mean, she might not remember it but I think she'll like it." I got her diaper bag together and we were ready to go. It was cold out so we all had to put jackets on.

The walk to the theatre was pretty quiet except for the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and the dry leaves scrapping the ground.

When we arrived at the movie theatre, there was hardly anybody there. I guess a lot of people had gone out of town for Thanksgiving. But I did see one person I knew.

"Hey, Pony" said Cherry.

"Hey."

"Long time no see."

"I've been busy lately" I said, "what are you doin' here?"

"I'm takin' my little brother to see _Marry Poppins. _What about you?"

"We're here to see _Marry Poppins _too."

"Oh, this must be Davanee" said Cherry, getting down in front of the stroller, "she's so adorable." Davanee looked up at me with a confused and scared look.

"It's ok, sweetie. Cherry's not gonna hurt you." Davanee smiled and giggled slightly. I guess that was her way of telling me that she approved of Cherry.

"Well, we better get goin'. The movies gonna start pretty soon" said Cherry.

"Yeah, we better buy our tickets. See you in there I guess."

"See ya." Cherry and her little brother walked off to find there seats inside. We bought our tickets and sat down next to Cherry and her brother. The movie was ok. I remember when my dad took me to go see that movie. I was about 12 or 11. . My dad liked to go to the movies a lot. I guess that's where I get that quality from.

Davanee fell asleep about half way through the movie. I guess musicals aren't her thing. Either that or she was just tired. I think I'll go with her being tired.


	19. Thanksgiving

Chapter 19

"Thanksgiving already? How did it get to be thanksgiving? It seems like just yesterday it was Halloween" said Soda.

"Time flies" I said, changing Davanee into her new outfit. It was a dress that had pumpkins and fall leaves and anything else that might be considered fall on it. Underneath the dress was a white, long sleeve shirt. And of course, the outfit wouldn't be complete without the white stockings and black shoes. I was going to be one of those parents who dressed their little girls up in cutsy outfits.

"You know she's not gonna stay like that for long, right?"

"I know but at least she'll look this long enough to get some pictures. I'll change her before we eat. So whose comin' over?" I asked, putting Davanee's shoes on.

"The gang, of course, Anya, Hailey, and……………what's that girls name?" asked Soda.

"Maddie. Maddie and Dillon."

"Who's Dillon?"

"Her son. Anybody else comin'?"

"Sandy might try to stop by but I dunno."

"Have you talked to her lately?"

"Yeah. I talked to her yesterday. She stopped by work."

"How's she doin'?" I asked.

"Fine I guess. Her parents still won't let her see me but she stops by work anyways. Her parents think she's spending thanksgiving at a friends house."

Before I could say anything, I heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it" said Soda. I brushed Davanee's little blonde curls and joined everybody in the living room.

"Who was at the door?" I asked, not noticing Maddie standing in the middle of the living room with Dillon on her hip.

"Oh hey Maddie" I said, smiling slightly.

"Hi" said Maddie, a tired look on her face.

"Didn't sleep?" I asked.

"Well, I got 2 hours of sleep but that was about it."

"Sorry. That's how it goes when you've got a baby" I said, setting Davanee on the floor so she could play with her toys. I laid out a blanket so Maddie could put Dillon down. Davanee seemed a bit confused about Dillon. She hadn't been around another baby before. She started crawling towards him but stopped and gave me a confused look.

"It's ok Davanee. He's not gonna hurt you" I said, as if she understood me.

Davanee started crawling towards Dillon again. I placed a bunch of toys in front of them so they could play. But I'm not really sure Dillon could play just yet. I looked down at the babies then back up at Maddie. She looked like she was about to fall asleep right then and there.

"You know you can sleep if you want before dinner. We'll watch Dillon for you" I said.

"Oh no" said Maddie, yawning, "it's ok. I'm not tired."

"Seriously you should probably get some sleep. There's the couch or the cot in the nursery. Which one?" I asked. I would've offered her my bed but for some reason that didn't sound right to me.

"I'll take the cot" said Maddie, "you sure you don't mind watching him for a little while?"

"Not at all. You go ahead. We'll wake you when dinners' ready" I said.

"Thanks Pony. Where's the nursery?"

"Down the hall, first door on the right. There's blankets and pillows in the closet."

Without saying anything more, Maddie marched down the hall to the nursery.

"Where's she goin'?" asked Soda.

"To take a nap. She says she hasn't slept good in a while so I figured I'd give her a break" I said. Right after I said that, there was another knock on the door.

"I'll get it" I said. I opened the door to reveal Anya and Hailey. Hailey looked really happy to be here but Anya didn't. Hailey looked different to me. The last time I saw her, she looked healthy. This time she had cuts and bruises.

"Hey" I said.

"Hey" said Anya. I opened the door a little wider so they could come in. Hailey went straight to the toys while Anya and I sat on the couch.

"Where's Maddie?" asked Anya.

"She's asleep."

"Good. She probably needs it" said Anya, a bit distant and distraught.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"Something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong, ok."

"Please tell me" I begged.

Anya hesitated for a moment, almost as if she was afraid to tell me why. She looked around the room hastily. Then she made eye contact with me. Her eyes began to fill with tears but I could tell she was trying to hold them back.

"It's Hailey" she said in a whisper.

"What's the matter with Hailey?" I asked.

Anya fell quiet again. She tried to fight the tears but it didn't work. She put her face in her hands and cried.

"The state is gonna take her away" said Anya through tears.

"What? Why?"

"They think that Stephen hits her" said Anya.

"Well, does he?"

"Look at her and tell me what you think" said Anya. I looked down at Hailey. She was shaking a rattle in Davanee's face. She had cuts and bruises all along her arms. There was a big bruise on her cheek.

"Anya, I'm so sorry" I said. What else could I say?

"It's ok, it's not your fault" said Anya, "it's just that, she's like a little sister to me. I've known her since the day she was born. I've always babysat her whenever Stephen went out. And she was always at my house whenever my parents where gone. And now she's being taken away from me. I'm not gonna see her again."

"You don't know that. You know, I've heard of people fighting these types of things."

"Yeah, but where would we get the money for a good lawyer?" asked Anya, drying her eyes on the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

"It'll be ok" I said.

"How do you know for sure?"

"I don't but I have a feeling that it will. Who knows? Maybe the court will give her to Stephen's parents since her mother is dead. Or maybe they'll give her to her mother's parents."

"They don't live here" said Anya, "they live in California."

"Oh."

"You know, maybe I shouldn't think about it right now. It's Thanksgiving. We're suppose to be happy."

"Of course we are" I said, smiling slightly, "I'm especially happy."

"Why?"

"Because it's Davanee's first Thanksgiving and because you're here." Anya smiled when I said that. I have a tendency to make people smile after they've been crying for a while. Anya and I talked for a little while longer about different things like school, what was on TV last night, stuff like that. Then I got up to take pictures of Davanee on her first Thanksgiving.

"I'll help" said Anya.

We took a bunch of pictures outside, next to the pumpkins on the front porch.

We were almost done when Anya said "let me take one of the both of you."

I ran a brush through my hair and pulled Davanee up in my lap. At first she was smiling and looking at the camera but right before Anya snapped the picture, she turned and looked up at me. We took another one but it didn't turn out as good as the first.

Once we were done with the pictures, I changed her out of that outfit. It had been bugging her all day and I could tell she was dying to get it off. About three or four hours and 1 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade later, it was time for dinner. Maddie was up by that time. She woke up around half time of the 2nd game.

Since Dillon wasn't old enough to sit in a high chair, Maddie had to hold him all through dinner. We had so many people over for Thanksgiving, we couldn't even fit at the table. Some had to pull a chair up to the kitchen counter. Luckily, I got to sit at the table. Davanee seemed a bit confused as to what was going on. She looked at the turkey and cranberry sauce on her plate and then looked at me.

"It's ok" I said, "see watch. Daddy'll eat it."

"I thought Daddy didn't like cranberry sauce" said Soda, taking a spoonful of mashed potatoes.

"I don't but I'm trying to get her to eat it. I figure that if she sees me eat it she'll eat it too. Monkey see monkey do" I said. When I tasted the cranberries, I made a funny face. I had forgotten how much I hated cranberry sauce.

"Never mind" I said, "you don't have to eat that." I gave her some mashed potatoes to eat instead. She seemed to like those. We finished off the holiday with a pumpkin pie and a chocolate pie. I gave Davanee a small taste of the chocolate pie. Of course, she wanted more after tasting it. I guess you could say the apple didn't fall far from the tree in this case.

I put Davanee to bed while everybody else watched the last football game of the day. Of course, I read _Green Eggs and Ham_. For awhile, Davanee wouldn't let me read any other book.

"So your 2nd big holiday has come an gone" I said, changing Davanee into her pajamas, "you know what that means, don't ya? That means Christmas is comin'. God, your first Christmas. And I thought today was big, Christmas is gonna be a big deal this year." I smiled at the thought. For some reason, I had always anticipated my baby's first Christmas but I had no idea it would come so soon. I gave her a kiss and turned out the lights, leaving the door cracked.

Everybody went home around midnight, except for Johnny and Dallas, who ended up spending the night.

I walked Maddie and Dillon home that night. It wasn't safe for a 12 year old girl with a baby to be walking home by herself. You never know what might happen. We didn't really talk a lot on the way. We were both pretty tired from the days events.

"Thanks for walking with me" said Maddie once we got to her house.

"No problem" I said, "you sure your dad is home?" Maddie's house looked very, very dark.

"His car is in the driveway so he must be" said Maddie.

"Ok. I'll see you later I guess."

"Bye." Maddie turned and walked into the darkness of her house.


	20. the future Mrs Curtis

Chapter 20

About a week after Thanksgiving, I helped Darry and Soda put up all the Christmas decorations. Well, almost all of them that is. We didn't have a tree yet. Darry said the tree would probably be dead before Christmas so we had to wait. The gang came over that day but only Johnny and Steve helped with the decorations. Two-Bit and Dallas just watched TV.

"So what are you guys doin' later on today?" asked Johnny.

"I think I'm gonna do a little Christmas shopping. Get it done and out of the way" I said, untangling a strand of lights.

"You takin' Davanee with you?" asked Soda.

"Yeah, why not? She'll probably like seeing all the decorations and stuff" I said. When we where finished with the decorations, Johnny, Davanee, and I went Christmas shopping.

Davanee was very wide-eyed when she saw all of the decorations in the mall. I would be too if it was my first time seeing them. When we walked by the place where you can get your picture taken with Santa, Johnny asked "are you going to take her to see Santa?"

"Yeah, probably." There must have been thousands of kids waiting anxiously in line to see Santa. I remember seeing Santa when I was little. I told him I wanted a bike and a football. But I didn't get a bike or a football. All I got was a sweater and some books. The books weren't so bad, but the sweater was. It was one of those gaudy, holiday sweaters.

Our first stop in the mall was Dillards. We walked around the men's clothing section for a while until I found something for Darry. He had been saying lately that he wanted a new jacket . Besides, the only one he had was pretty shabby.

The jacket we were looking at had dark wooden buttons on the front and sleeves, with wool on the inside and black leather on the outside. And luckily for us, it was in my price range. I draped it over the stroller and started looking for Soda. Soda was a bit easier to buy for. He would be happy to with a shirt and jeans. So of course, that's what I got him. A red, plaid shirt and a pair of jeans.

"What about Anya?" asked Johnny.

"What do you mean 'what about Anya'?" I asked.

"What are you gonna get her for Christmas?"

"I dunno. I haven't really thought about it. What do you buy a girl for Christmas?" I asked. I had never bought a Christmas present for a girl before but I guess now I had no choice.

"Well, what does she like?"

I thought for a minute. She hasn't really told me what she likes. But then I thought about that navy blue sweat shirt she always wears. It was dirty and the sleeves had been stretched go so much that they fell over her fingers.

"She needs a new sweatshirt" I said aloud.

"Then get her a new sweatshirt" said Johnny. And that's exactly what we did. I figured she needed a bright, pink one since she already had one that was really dark. Once we bought all the clothes, we left. It was starting to get dark out and I had learned the hard way that it isn't safe to be walking in the dark in our neighborhood.

When we where walking home, I saw Anya walking the opposite direction on the sidewalk across the street. I turned to Johnny and was about to say something but he cut me off.

"Go on" he said, "I'll take her home."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. Now go before I change my mind."

"Alright. Tell Darry I'll be there in a little while to put her to bed, ok?"

"Ok."

I ran across the street to talk to Anya.

"Hey" I said.

"Hey" said Anya in a whisper.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong. What makes you think that anything's wrong?"

"You're crying. People don't just cry, there has to be some sort of reason. What's wrong?"

"My mom and I got in this huge argument. I didn't even do anything. Can I help it that she had a bad day? I asked one question and she just started yelling at me. She kicked me out. What am I gonna do? I don't have anywhere's to go." Anya started sobbing. I didn't really see what the big deal was about being kicked out. It had never happened to me personally but tons of my friends had been kicked out. Steve gets kicked out at least once a week. But I guess this was a first time experience for her.

"It's ok" I said, giving her a hug. "You can come stay with us."

"Seriously?" asked Anya, her faced buried in her hands.

"Of course. You'll always welcome at our house that is if you don't mind always being around guys and a crying baby." She laughed slightly. According to my mom, laughter through tears is the best medicine.

"Come on, let's go for a walk" I said.

"Ok." So we walked around and looked at all the Christmas lights, my arm around her waist the whole time. For a moment, everything was perfect. I felt normal for once in a long time. I mean, a 14 year old kid isn't suppose to be home on a Saturday night changing diapers but I've gotta deal with what I've been given.

"You know, Anya I've been meaning to ask you something" I said, looking at her instead of the Christmas lights.

"What's that?" she asked, looking at a house that had twinkling lights.

I hesitated for a moment. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to ask her yet but this moment seemed like the opportune moment. I thought that if I wanted any longer, I would miss the chance.

"What is it?" she asked.

I could feel my palms getting sweaty. "Will you go out with me?"

She looked at me, a bit confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?" I asked.

Her smile was from ear to ear. I'm guessing she was hopping I would ask her.

"Of course." I planted a kiss on her soft lips. We stayed like that for a couple of minutes until she finally pulled away.

We walked around for about an hour, my arm around her and her head resting on my shoulder.

"Pony?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"It's cold, can we go home?"

Though I didn't want this night to end, I knew that we had to go home eventually. So we walked home, looking at all the lights that we passed on the way. It was almost midnight when we got back. Darry and Soda were still up when we got there.

"Where have you been?" asked Darry.

"Sorry, I lost track of time. It's not past midnight, is it?" I asked. Midnight was my curfew and Darry always got mad whenever I missed curfew.

"No, it's only 11:40, but you've got someone who won't go to sleep unless you put her to bed tonight."

"Oh, I totally forgot. How long has she been crying?"

"Since we tried to put her to bed." I left Anya out in the living room with Soda and Darry. How could I forget about my own daughter? I never forget about her. How could anybody forget about something so important?

The door to the nursery creaked open. Davanee was sitting in her crib, her face red and tearstained from crying so much. She calmed down a little when she saw me. I immediately picked her up and rocked her in the rocking chair. I sang to her softly and rubbed her back while she stopped crying. Slowly, yet surely she fell asleep. I laid her down gently in her crib and gave her a kiss goodnight.

I said "sorry baby" and gave her another kiss. I turned off the light and shut the door behind me so that she wouldn't wake up.

"Is she asleep now?" asked Darry.

"Sound asleep."

"I'm gonna go to bed" said Darry, heading towards his room.

"Wait, there's something I gotta ask ya" I said. Darry turned and looked at me.

"Ummm……….Anya got kicked out of her house earlier today and I was wondering if she could stay with us for a little while until her and her parents get everything worked out" I said.

Darry thought about it for a moment. We already had a house full of people so it was kinda hard to accommodate one more. But Darry wasn't known to turn people down, especially a 14 yr. old girl.

Darry took a deep breath before saying "alright but just until she gets everything worked out and she sleeps on the couch, got it?"

"Got it" I said, my smile from ear to ear. I got a bunch of blankets and pillows out of the hall closet and made a bed for Anya.

"Thanks Pony" said Anya, taking her shoes off.

"It's no problem. We have people staying over here all the time. What's one more, right?"

She smiled and got under the covers.

"Night" I said, giving her a goodnight kiss.

"Good night." I turned off the lights and went back to my room. Soda was sound asleep by the time I got there. I guess had a long day at work. He always goes right to bed whenever he has a long day. I changed into my pajamas and crawled into bed next to Soda.

I woke up early the next morning. The house was quiet so obviously everybody was still asleep. Davanee wasn't even up yet which was odd because she was usually the first one up.

I made the breakfast and set the table. I decided to go in and check on Davanee. It was almost 8:30 and she still wasn't up. When I walked into her room, I was surprised to see her awake. She was just laying there, shifting her eyes from one spot to the other. Something wasn't right.

I picked her up and felt her forehead. She was hot. I grabbed the baby thermometer from the changing table. We always kept the thermometer close at hand. It read 101. I changed Davanee into a shirt, jeans, jacket, and shoes. I had to get her to the doctor.

I marched into my room only to find that Soda was just starting to get up.

"I need you to drive us to the doctors."

"Why, what's wrong?" asked Soda, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Davanee's sick. She's running a fever. Come on, get up."

"I'm up, I'm up. Just let me change first, ok?"

I pulled on a pair of jeans and a jacket while Davanee sat on our bed.

We left without telling Darry or Anya. I directed Soda to the doctors office and we where there in less then 15 minutes.

"Ponyboy, I wasn't expecting to see you today. What's wrong?" asked Dr. Irene.

"She's sick" I said, "she's running a fever."

"Well, it's probably just a fever but let's have a look just to be safe. Follow me." I followed Dr. Irene back to an exam room while Soda waited in the waiting room amongst all the kids with there sneezing and runny noses.

I sat and watched as Dr. Irene examined Davanee. I never liked going to the doctor when I was little. I didn't like it when they used the tongue depressor. It always made me gag.

"Her throat appears to be a little red" said Dr. Irene.

"That's it?" I asked.

"It's just a cold. It'll pass in a couple of days but in the mean time you can give her baby Tylenol to reduce the fever and soar throat. Give it to her every four hours. I'm not going to write a prescription this time because you can normally buy it over the counter."

"Thanks. Sorry."

"Oh, it's ok. It's perfectly normal for first time parents to freak out whenever there baby gets sick."

I thanked Dr. Irene again and left.

"What's wrong?" asked Soda as we drove to the drug store.

"She just has a cold" I replied.

"That's all?"

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing" I said.

"No, it's a good thing it's just that for some reason I expected it to be more, ya know? She has been acting kinda funny lately."

"What do you mean she's been acting funny?"

SODA'S POV

"Well" I began. I had to think of a good example. "For instance, she doesn't giggled whenever she sees you. She use to do that all the time but she hasn't lately. And she hasn't been playing with her butterfly or teddy bear lately. It just seems weird. But I'm sure she's ok. The doctors probably right."

"Of course she is. She spent 8 years in college" snapped Pony.

"I thought it was 6."

"6, 8, who cares? Just as long as she was there for a long time." Pony was starting to act a little weird too. He normally doesn't snap at people like that, especially me. Maybe he was starting to get sick again.

"I hope she doesn't have what I had" said Pony.

"Probably doesn't. You weren't around her long enough" I said, pulling into the drug store parking lot.

"I'll go in and get the medicine. You comin'?"

"No, I'll stay out here with her." I didn't really feel like goin' in with him. There are some odd people in drug stores.

PONY'S POV

It was freezing cold inside the store. I think I even saw an ice sickle hanging off one of the shelves. Wait a minute, that was a Christmas decorati0n, never mind. They were playing "The Entertainer" over the speakers. That is one of the only songs I know how to play on the piano. Mom would play one part and I would play the other. 'Maybe I'll teach Davanee how to play that one day' I thought to myself.

I found the medicine isle as soon as I walked into the store. At first I thought they didn't have any baby Tylenol but then I found that it was all the way at the end of the isle. But then it was divided by age. I figured that Davanee fit under the "2 years and under" category.

Luckily for me there was no line at the check out counter but since there was no cashier at the counter, I had to wait a little while. I decided to read one of the magazines on the magazine stand. I normally don't read magazine but this was just because I had nothing better to do.

As I was flipping through the magazine, looking for a decent article to read, I looked up at a mirror that was right behind the counter. I noticed about four or five Socs wondering the isle. They acted like there where interested in what was in the store but occasionally they would look at me. I had a feeling something was about to happen and whatever it was wasn't going to be good. I tapped my fingers on the counter nervously, hoping that the cashier would hurry up. No such luck.

The Socs put down whatever it was they where looking at and started walking towards me in a slow sort of stalking manor. I pretended like I didn't notice them.

"Hey greaser!" one of them called. I could feel a chill run down my spine. It didn't feel good to be called greaser in public. I prayed that Davanee would never have to get involved in the whole greaser, soc thing like I was but I had a feeling she would. It's almost impossible in our neighborhood.

I turned around to see the socs right behind me.

"What do you want?" I asked, even though I already knew what they wanted.

"We heard you dissed a couple of our friends the other day" said one.

"The other day? That was almost a month ago" I said, folding my arms across my chest, " a little slow, aren't you?"

They just stared at me with cold eyes. Before I could say anything else, they had me down in a second, driving their knees into my elbows. Trust me, you don't know how much that hurts. Somebody hit me square in the eye while two others where kicking me in the back on the head. I would've blacked out had it not been for the manager running out from the back of the store. He scared them off.

"You ok kid?" asked the guy, helpin' me up.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Anything I can get you?"

"Just the Tylenol" I said, gesturing to the bottle.

"You know son, baby Tylenol ain't gonna help you much" said the manager.

"I know. It's not for me" I said.

The manager looked at me funny but gave me the Tylenol anyways. I was about to pull out my money but he stopped me.

"It's ok. It's on me."

I smiled and said thanks. Normally I wouldn't take charity from people but I wasn't in the mood to stand there and argue with the manager.

"What happened?" asked Soda once I got back in the car.

"I got jumped."

"What?! When?"

"Just now, in the store."

"Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine. I got a couple of bruises and cuts but I'll be ok."

"You sure?" asked Soda, a bit more concerned then usual.

"Yes, I'm sure. Can we go home now?" I asked.

Soda just gave me a concerned look before starting the car. I know it may seem like I was acting a bit more edgier then usual but I was hurting, Davanee was sick, and I wanted to get home. The rest of the car ride was silent. Davanee had fallen asleep while I was in the drug store.

When we got home, I put Davanee in her crib and let her sleep for a little while. It probably helped the fever.

"Is she ok?" asked Anya.

"Yeah, she'll be ok. She just has a cold" I said.

"What about you? Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Would you people quit asking me."

"What's wrong with you?" asked Anya.

"Nothing, I'm just tired. I think I'm gonna go back to bed. Wake me if she wakes up, ok?"

"Ok."

_ANYA'S POV_

What was wrong with him? I had never seen him so edgy before. Maybe he really was tired. Or maybe Davanee had more than just a regular cold. I was hoping that it was just him being tired.

"Darry, I'm going out" I said, pulling on my old sweatshirt.

"Where ya goin'?" he asked.

"I was gonna go back to my house and get some of my stuff" I said.

"You think that's a good idea?"

"It's ok. My dad's normally out during the day and my mom works all day."

"Ok, just be careful. Don't stay out all day."

"Ok, see ya later."

"Bye." I walked outside into the freezing cold air. It was a long walk between the Curtis house and my house but I had time. I didn't have anything important to do that day.

As I walked to my house, I stopped and talked to a bunch of people. I guess you could say I was popular around this part of town. Almost everybody knew my family.

As I approached my house, I saw something standing in the front yard. I thought that perhaps my mom had put up some sort of Christmas decoration that year but as I got closer to the yard I could see that I was wrong. Way wrong.


	21. No skill to it

Chapter 21

I stood in the front yard and stared at the 'for sale' sign for a couple of minutes. How could they do this to me? Why didn't they tell me? I could feel the tears forming already. I whipped them away briskly and marched inside. I saw both of my parents sitting at the kitchen table which was weird because normally my mom was at work.

"What are you doing here?" asked Mom.

"I came by to get some clothes. What's with the sign in the front yard?"

"We're moving" said my dad, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He thought he looked so cool with a cigarette when he really looked like a moron.

"I figured that. I meant where are we moving to?"

"New York City. My company wants me to take a job up there. We're leaving in about a month or 2" said mom.

"We're not even gonna wait till Christmas is over? You know how important that is to me" I said.

"Yeah well this is more important. We might actually be able to afford a decent house, you can get new clothes, go to a better school" said mom. I knew she was just saying that to get me to move. My mom was never that nice to me. At times I think she seriously hated me. Both of my parents always told me that they'd prefer Tommy over me. It's not that I don't love my brother or anything it's just that it hurts when you're parents tell you that they'd prefer the other child over you.

"I'm not going" I said, crossing my arms over my chest defiantly.

"Yes you are" said mom.

"No, I'm not."

"Young lady you're going and you're going to like it" said my dad, his voice raising slightly.

"Make me!" I yelled.

Without saying a word my dad stood up and slapped me so hard across the face I stumbled backwards a little, catching my balance before I hit the ground.

"You do not talk to me like that. I'm your father, you show me respect!"

"Why should I? You don't respect me! You hate me! You've always hated me!" I screamed, running back to my room to get some of my stuff. I gathered my things before my parents could do anything else to me. I ran all the way to the Curtis house and didn't stop till I was on there front porch. I stopped breathlessly and looked behind me. I thought surely my parents would come after me but I was wrong. The only thing that was chasing me were the dead leaves. I sighed a sigh of relief. If my dad had found out that I was staying there all hell would have broken loose.

I walked inside and shut the door behind me quietly, thinking that Pony and Davanee were still asleep. And I was right. There's was nobody there, except for Davanee and Pony.

I threw my stuff down on the couch and turned on the TV, turning it down so as not the wake them up. Pony was pretty grouchy before he went to bed so I would hate to see him when he woke up. I decided that maybe it would be a good idea if I went in and checked on him. When I opened the door, I saw that he was sound asleep but sweating a lot. It wasn't hot. I felt his head to see if he was running a fever but he was cold. He started to move a little but he didn't wake up. I tip-toed out of the room and left the door cracked behind me. Then I went in and checked on Davanee. She was still asleep.

I sat down in the living room and thought about how I was going to tell Pony about me moving. At first I thought that dinner would be a good time but then I remembered that there are a lot of people over here for dinner. Then I thought that I would tell him when we went for a walk but it occurred to me that for some reason he wouldn't want to go on a walk. I came up with a couple of other ideas but I always found something wrong with them.

I figured that the best way to tell him was just to come out and say it when I thought the time was right.

I stayed inside the rest of the day. In my opinion, it was too cold to go outside. I'm not too fond of the cold. I'm more of a spring, summertime person.

I was making dinner when I heard feet shuffling down the hall.

"Hey sleepy head" I said as Pony appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"Hey" he said, wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

"Feelin' better?"

"Yeah, a little. What time is it?"

"6:30."

"I've been asleep all day? Why'd you let me sleep all day?"

"I figured you needed it. Davanee's been asleep most of the day too. She only woke up twice."

"Did you give her any Tylenol?" asked Pony as he sat down at the table.

"Yeah, couple of hours ago."

There was a silence between us except for me cooking that is.

"Pony there's something I have to tell you" I began but before he could respond, the baby started crying.

"Hold that thought" said Pony, jumping up. He came back with Davanee in hand. He started to make her a bottle.

"Where are all the bottles?" asked Pony.

"They're in the sink. I washed them today" I said.

"You know, you don't have to do that. It's not like you have to earn your stay here" said Pony, pulling a pink bottle out of the sink. He put Davanee down on the counter and got the apple juice out of the ice box.

"So where is everybody? It's kinda quiet here" said Pony, filling up the bottle.

"Darry is working late. Soda and Steve said they were going out with Sandy and Evie tonight, or at least they were going to try to meet up with them. Johnny, Dallas, and Two-Bit will probably be over here later."

"Probably. They're usually over here around dinner time" said Pony.

"And breakfast."

"Of course, how could I forget? So, what was it you wanted to tell me earlier?" he asked, sitting back down at the table.

"Well, ummm, I don't really know how to say this. It's kinda hard for me to tell you" I began.

"Look, whatever it is you can tell me."

I took a deep breathe. This way harder then I thought it was going to be. So I decided to just blurt it out.

"Pony, I'm moving."

"What!? When?"

"In a couple of months. My parents and I are moving to New York."

"No, you can't go."

"I wish I didn't have but my dad said I have no choice and whatever he says goes" I said.

"I won't let you. There's no way you're going" said Pony.

"Oh, and what are you going to do? Chain me to the sofa?" I asked.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea except we don't have any chains" said Pony.

_PONY'S POV_

Moving? How can she be moving? Great , one of the only good things besides Davanee that had happened to me since Davanee and she was leaving. It was hard for me to picture things without Anya. I mean , I know we hadn't known each other that long but still , she was my girlfriend. Wouldn't you be upset if your girlfriend or boyfriend was moving far , far away?

"Pony, are you ok?" asked Anya.

"Yeah , I'll be ok. I just don't want ya to leave is all."

"I don't want to leave and I especially don't want to leave you. I like it here , it's almost like home except it's better."

"Are you talking about our house or Tulsa?" I asked.

"Your house but I like being in Tulsa too" said Anya. Just then, we heard the front door slam.

"Anybody home?!" called Soda from the living room.

"In here!" I called.

Soda walked into the kitchen and asked "has the mail come yet?"

"Soda, it's 7:00 of course the mail has come" said Anya, handing him the stack of mail. He flipped through it briskly and once he realized that there was nothing in there for him , he threw the stack on the table.

"So how was work?" I asked.

"Fine. Shouldn't you be getting ready for school?" asked Soda , taking a seat next to me at the table.

"No, I don't have school tonight" I said.

"Why not?" asked Anya.

"I dunno I just don't. I think it was a teacher planning day today or something" I said.

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Soda.

"Well, whenever they have a teacher planning day for regular school , we have one for night school but I guess in that case it would be called a teacher planning night. So, I thought you were goin' out with Steve, Evie, and Sandy tonight" I said, changing the subject. I didn't like to talk about school. I thought it was boring to talk about school. Plus, I think you get enough school without having to talk about it.

"Sandy couldn't go out" said Soda.

"Who's Sandy?" asked Anya.

"My girlfriend."

"She's not sick or anything is she?" I asked.

"No, the doctor just put her on bed rest" said Soda.

"Well then, doesn't that mean she's sick?" asked Anya.

"No. She's pregnant" said Soda.

"Not to be nosey or anything but it is yours , isn't it?"

"I don't know. Part of me is hoping that it is and the other part is hoping that it isn't" said Soda.

"Does everybody else know?" asked Anya.

"No and I want to keep it that way. Can you imagine what Darry would do if he found out?"

"Keep in mind that I've actually been on the receiving end of that argument " I said.

"Oh yeah. You'll think Darry'll react the same way with me?" asked Soda.

"React to what?" asked Darry. He had just walked in the door and happened to hear the last part of our conversation.

"Nothing" said Soda.

"Come on , tell me" said Darry.

"We where just wondering if you would react to Soda taking night school the same way you did with me" I said.

"You wanna start going to night school?" asked Darry.

"Well, I was just thinkin' about it. I wasn't really sure" said Soda, playing along.

"I don't care if you want to start school again but you'll have to keep your day job at the DX."

"Oh I know" said Soda. There was a brief silence between us. Soda, Anya, and I looked at each other a bit nervously.

"Well, I'm gonna go get a shower" said Darry, breaking the silence.

Neither one of us said anything in response. We waited till we heard the shower running to talk again.

"Thanks" said Soda.

"No problem." I would cover for my brother any time.

"I think I'm gonna go see Sandy tonight" said Soda after awhile.

"I thought you said she was on bed rest" said Anya.

"She is but she's gonna be home alone tonight and I thought she might need someone there. She doesn't like to be alone" said Soda, his voice sounding a bit sad.

"What's wrong?" asked Anya.

"Nothing" said Soda.

"You're scared, aren't you?" I asked.

"What?" asked Soda.

"You're scared that it's yours."

"Yeah, a little. It's not that bad, is it?"

"What, parenting?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"It's not so bad once you get use to it. You'll probably be scared to death but it'll be ok. You wanna hold her?" I asked. I thought Davanee might be good practice for Soda, that is if the baby is his.

"Sure" said Soda, taking Davanee from me. He had held her a couple of times before but not for long periods of time. It's not that I didn't trust him it's just that I don't think Davanee really liked to be held by anybody else besides me and Anya. She seemed to take a liking to Anya. I did too.

Soda handed Davanee back to me.

"Where are you goin'?" I asked.

"I'm gonna go change so I can go see Sandy" said Soda, getting up from the table.

"You're not staying for dinner?" asked Anya.

"I'll just grab something on the way. I might take something to her" said Soda, leaving to go change.

"I hope he realizes what he's getting himself into" I said aloud, hoping Soda didn't hear that.

"What are you talking about?" asked Anya.

"I mean if this baby is his, I hope he realizes what he getting into. It's not all fun and games" I said. When I was younger, parenting always appeared to be so easy to me, like there was nothing to it. No skill involved. I was wrong.

_Hey guys, I'm sorry to say that I might not be updating for awhile. I've been out of town for a long time and I have a lot of make-up work for school. And just out of curiosity, how old are y'all?_


	22. Merry Christmas

Chapter 22

Christmas eve was upon us before we knew it. I found myself surrounded by nothing but tape and wrapping paper. Soda had to work, so he got all his wrapping done early. Darry took Davanee with him to go Christmas shopping. It isn't like him to wait till the last minute but Darry had been working real hard lately so he didn't really have time to go shopping.

I was wrapping one of Davanee's presents when Johnny and Dally came over.

"You guys gonna be here tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah. We've got no where's else to go so why not?" said Johnny, "besides, I've got a Christmas present for Davanee."

"You do?" I asked.

"Yeah. It's not much but I think she'll like it."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Just a doll I saw it in one of the store windows down town. She might not be old enough for a doll yet but I figured she'd grow into it."

"I'm sure she'll like it. I mostly got her clothes. She needs clothes , especially winter stuff." I grabbed an armload of wrapped presents and set them under the tree, carefully that is. There where breakable, irreplaceable ornaments on that tree. Darry would be mad if I broke any of them. Most of them were ones that mom had collected. She loved to collect ornaments. She even let us pick out our favorites from her collection and then she would give them to us that Christmas. I had 2 ornaments. One of them she gave to me when I was four. It had a little boy, who was dressed up as a cowboy, and a pony.

The other one she gave to me on her last Christmas. It was an emerald green, glass star that had gold sparkles all over it. It meant more to me then the one with the kid and the pony.

I had gotten Davanee a couple of "baby's first Christmas" ornaments. I found this one that had a baby on it who had blonde curls and looked like she was laughing. It had a big pink D and baby's first Christmas on it. I just had to get it.

I stuffed the rest of the presents under the tree and waited for Darry, Davanee, Soda, and Anya to come home. While we where waiting for them to come home, I made sugar cookies. It was a tradition we had been doing for years. We would always make sugar cookies and decorate them the day before Christmas. Mom would also make sticky buns with nuts, but she always made sure there were a few without nuts because I didn't like nuts in mine. But since she never taught any of us how to make them, that tradition stopped when they died. I had tried a couple of times before but they just weren't the same. They always came out burnt.

We waited for what seemed like forever until Darry and Davanee finally came home.

"How was it?" I asked.

"It was fine. She was good" said Darry.

"What'd you get?"

"Now, you know I can't tell you that. You wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, would you?"

"Fine" I said, taking Davanee out of the stroller. I hadn't seen her almost all day.

"Come on" I said to Davanee, "you can help me decorate the cookies."

"If she can't even eat cookies yet, how is she going to help you?" asked Darry.

"I dunno." I put Davanee in her high chair and went to work on the cookies. Mom use to always let me decorate the cookies when I was little.

Once we where done with the cookies, I set them aside and out of reach. If Two-Bit and Soda found the cookies, we wouldn't have any left over for Christmas.

About an hour later, Soda and Steve came home, along with Anya. Anya had been out doing some last minute Christmas shopping.

It was a different Christmas eve for us that year. We had two new people at the table. Well, one wasn't really at the table. She was sitting in her high chair, but that was close enough. All she had for dinner was a bottle and carrots, which weren't really carrots. They where baby food carrots.

Once we were done with dinner, everybody went into the living room while I got Davanee ready for bed. When I was looking for her Christmas pajamas that Mrs. Mathews had gotten her, I noticed a book on the bookshelf Soda and Darry had put in her room. It was _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_. I remember the many Christmas's my parents had read that story to me. Maybe it was time to start that tradition again.

I brought Davanee and the book out the living room.

"What's that?" asked Darry.

"The grinch. I figured Davanee might like it."

"It's been a long time since we've heard that story" said Soda.

"Read it to us" said Darry.  
"What?" I asked. I was a bit surprised that he would say that. I thought that maybe me reading the book might remind Soda and Darry of mom and dad. I didn't want to ruin their holiday by making them said.

"Read it to us" repeated Darry.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Of course."

I smiled a bit while I put Davanee down. I pulled the rocking chair out of the nursery. I rocked Davanee and read to the gang at the same time. The book didn't take very long to read. I've you've ever read the book, you'll know it's just a couple of pages. But Davanee was asleep by the time I finished.

I set her down in her crib and gave her a kiss good night. Darry put the rocking chair back in the nursery for me.

About an hour and a Christmas special later, everybody had gone home except for Johnny and Dallas. They all said they would be back over early in the morning. Then Soda went to bed. He said that if he didn't get to bed soon, Santa wouldn't come. He was 16 and he still believed in Santa (no offence to those of you that do).

"You know, you better get to sleep too" said Darry.

"I know but I'm not tired. I'm too excited to be tired" I said.

"About what you're gonna get tomorrow?"

"Well, that and it being Davanee's first Christmas."

"I can't believe it's her first Christmas" said Darry.

"Neither can I" I said, "ya know, last year I never would've guessed that I would have a kid this year. I just thought it was gonna be normal but I think it turned out better then what I had expected."

"If you had a second chance, would you change it?" asked Darry.

"You mean, would I not go to that party?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know really. I think since she's come everything's gotten better for me at least. I don't think I would change anything" I replied honestly. I was actually happy with my life for once.

"That's good" said Darry.

"What about you?" I asked.

"What do ya mean?"

"I mean, if you could go back and put us in a boys home, would you?"

"No. I couldn't do that to you. What kind of brother would I be if I did that to you and Soda? Besides, you'd probably never forgive me if I did" said Darry.

"Things would be different if you had" I said. I hadn't thought about it before but things really would be different if he had put us in a boys home somewhere. I would be separated from my brothers. I could never be separated from my brothers, even if I do think Darry doesn't love me sometimes.

"I think I'm gonna try to go to bed now" I said, getting up.

"Alright. 'Night" said Darry.

"'Night" I said.

I found it hard to sleep that night. I was too excited. I always found it hard to sleep on Christmas eve but I eventually fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning, it was very quiet. For some reason, it was always quiet on Christmas morning at our house. Normally there would be somebody in the kitchen or the tv would be turned up really loud or something. But there was nothing this morning. I got out of bed and tiptoed down the hall to the nursery. Davanee was still asleep.

So I went to Darry's room to wake him up. At first he wouldn't get up but when he finally realized that I wouldn't leave him alone until he did, he started getting up. Then I went in to wake up Soda but he was already up. Christmas and his birthday were the only two days where he really wanted to get up out of bed.

"Should we have breakfast first?" asked Darry.

"Yeah. Let me get Davanee" I said, heading back to the nursery. I got Davanee up and changed her diaper before we went out to the kitchen. When we did come out, Darry was almost done with making breakfast. I had eggs while Davanee had a bottle. She could hold her bottle by then but she did drop it a lot. When we where done with breakfast, she had dropped her bottle 10 times.

We put the dishes in the sink and made our way to the living room. I think Soda was more excited then any of us. Davanee probably would have been excited had she known what was going on. I didn't really get a chance to open a lot of my presents right away. I opened Davanee's presents for her. She seemed happy with what she got. It was mostly clothes but there where a couple of toys. Soda gave her a brown stuffed horse (as in stuffed animal). Darry got her a pink shirt that had teddy bears on it, along with a pair of jeans. I just got her a bunch of clothes and a couple of new toys.

Once I was done with all of Davanee's presents, I moved on to my own. I didn't get much that year. Just clothes and books really, which is ok because that's all I really wanted.

"I got presents for y'all" I said, looking under the tree for the presents.

"When did you have time to go Christmas shopping?" asked Soda.

"When I wasn't at school" I replied, handing Soda his present. I gave Darry and Anya there presents. They all opened them at once.

"Where did you get the money?" asked Darry, looking at his new jacket.

"From you" I replied, "all this stuff was on sale."

Everybody seemed to like there presents from me, especially Anya.

About an hour later, after every present under the tree had been opened, the gang came over with more presents.

We opened the ones from Two-Bit first.

He gave Davanee a pair of blue converse.

"Her first pair of greasy shoes" said Two-Bit.

"I'm so proud" I added, sarcastically of course.

"What all did she get for Christmas?" asked Two-Bit.

"Just a bunch of toys and clothes. Nothing real big" I said. We would've gotten her something real big had we had the money.

The rest of the day went by pretty slowly, which is good because I hate it when holidays go by too fast. We took a bunch of pictures of Davanee in a Christmas dress that Mrs. Mathews had given us. She gave us a lot of baby clothes. Once we were done with all the picture taking and opening the presents, we had dinner. It was anything too special but it was nice.

After dinner, Darry made a bonfire in the back yard. Dad use to do that for us on thanksgiving and Christmas. It was practically tradition. Everybody went to go sit by the fire while I dressed Davanee. It was cold outside and I didn't want her to get sick again. Once I was done getting her dressed, we joined everybody else outside.

I sat next to Anya. She looked nice in her new pink sweat shirt.

"How did you know this is what I wanted? I never told anybody what I wanted for Christmas" said Anya.

"I kinda figured you needed one. Your old one was looking pretty bad" I said.

"So are you saying that I looked bad before?" asked Anya.

"No, no. That's not what I meant. What I meant was your sweat shirt looked bad."

"I knew what you meant. I was just giving you a hard time" said Anya, smiling.

"So, have you talked to your parents lately?" I asked.

"No, not really. I mean, I have talked to them but I haven't talked to them about moving if that's what you mean" said Anya.

"Well, I kinda came up with an idea. I've already talked to Darry about it and he said it was ok."

"What is it?" asked Anya.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd like to come live with us instead" I said.

"Seriously?" asked Anya.

"Seriously. I mean, you'd have to talk about it with your parents."

"Will you come with me?" asked Anya, "I don't think I can do that alone."

"Of course."

"I talked to Stephen" said Anya, looking at the fire, "the state is gonna take Hailey away. She gonna live with his parents."

"That's good" I said, "that's really good."


	23. one big family

Chapter 23

I must admit, I was a bit nervous about meeting Anya's parents for the first time. I had been practicing all day what I was going to say to them.

"Are you ready?" asked Anya.

"Yeah. Let's go" I said, grabbing my jacket off the hook.

"Wait a minute" said Darry, "what time will you be back?"

"Around 2 probably" I said, "would you mind watching Davanee until then?"

"Well, I gotta go to work at 2 but Two-Bit and Johnny will be here the rest of the day to watch her incase you're not back by then. Try to be back here by then. I know you don't have school tonight but I don't want to make Two-Bit and Johnny baby-sit the whole day, ok?"

"Alright. We'll be back by then" I said. I gave Davanee a kiss good-bye and said "you be a good girl while I'm gone, ok? Don't be givin' everybody a hard time."

"She never does" said Darry, taking the baby from me.

"Try to take her for a walk before you leave, ok" I said.

"I'll try. If not, I'll tell Johnny and Two-Bit."

"Ok, bye" I said, giving Davanee another kiss.

"Bye. Good luck" said Darry.

I said thanks and walked out the door. I felt bad about leaving Davanee for almost the whole day but I knew I couldn't take her with. I was scared that these people might hurt her.

"Are you nervous?" I asked as we walked to Anya's house.

"A little. I'm afraid they'll say no" said Anya.

"Me too."

The rest of the trip was quite. I think both of us where a bit too nervous to talk.

"This is it" said Anya, pointing to a house. It was ok. It wasn't like a house that a Soc would live in but it wasn't as bad as some of the ones in our neighborhood. The house was sort of nice on the inside. Better then my house that is. We found her parents sitting in the living room. Her mom was reading a magazine while her dad was watching TV.

"Who's that?" asked the dad, not looking away from the TV.

"This is Ponyboy Curtis" said Anya.

"Ponyboy? Who the hell names there kid Ponyboy?" asked the dad.

"His parents" replied Anya, "I wanted to talk to you an mom about something."

"Whatever it is, it's gonna have to wait till a commercial break" he said.

"No, it can't wait" said Anya, moving in front of the TV so she would grab his attention. He stared at her for a while but finally flipped the TV off.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Ummm……, Ponyboy and I came up with an idea" began Anya.

"What's that?" asked the mom, lowering her magazine.

"I want to move in with Ponyboy and his family" said Anya.

"Why, you sleepin' with him or something?" asked the mom.

"No, I'm not sleeping with him. I would just rather be there then New York" said Anya. The mother was about to protest but the father cut her off.

"Mary-Anne, can I talk to you in the kitchen?" asked the father. Without saying anything, the mother got up and followed him to the kitchen.

"I guess they're going to talk about it. You can sit down if you want" said Anya, sitting down on the couch. I sat down next to her.

"Look, I'm sorry about what my mom said before. I'm sorry that she jumped to conclusion like that" said Anya.

"It's ok. There's no need for you to be sorry about it. I would probably think the same thing if my daughter brought home some guy" I said.

"That probably won't happen for a long, long time" said Anya.

"She's not dating until after she's married" I said, which of course didn't make any sense whatsoever.

"My dad use to say the same thing about me."

"Really? I thought you said he didn't care about you?"

"Not him. I meant my real dad. Even though I was five when he died, I remember him saying that all the time to friends, family, whoever. God, I miss him."

"I know how you feel. I miss my dad too."

"I didn't even get a chance to say a real goodbye to him. That night when I was leaving to go to my friends house, I said a quick goodbye and gave him a kiss."

"At least you got some sort of goodbye" I said.

"I remember the funeral. It was hot out. Everybody was sobbing except me. I was confused about whether or not I should cry. It wasn't until later that I learned when you're five, you're not really effected emotionally by those types of things. I put a pink rose on both of there caskets."

"I remember my parents funeral too. It's not something that you can easily forget" I said. Before either one of us could add on to the conversation, Anya's parents came back in.

"Anya, you're mother and I have made a decision. We thought that it might be in you're best interest to stay with the Curtis'. You can move out today if you want" said the dad.

"Really?" asked Anya, a smile creeping across her face.

"Yeah" said her mother. Anya jumped up and went straight to her room. I followed her to her room. To be honest, her room wasn't all that great. It had a bed, dresser, and mirror. There wasn't even paint on the walls.

"Your room is sort of bare" I said.

"I know. I didn't really feel like decorating it all that much" said Anya, pulling a suitcase out from under her bed. She went to her closet and got all of her clothes. She didn't have that many. She grabbed everything else she thought she might need.

"You ready?" I asked.

"I'm ready" said Anya. I helped her carry her stuff home.

"You know, I never thought I would be getting out of there. For some reason, I thought I was going to be stuck there forever" said Anya, "I'm so happy to get out."

"Me too" I said, smiling. I was more happy about the fact that she was coming to live with us than her getting out of there.

When we got to the house, we put all of Anya's stuff in Davanee's closet. I didn't think Davanee would mind since she was only a baby.

"Where is everybody?" asked Anya.

"Darry and Soda went to work. Johnny and Two-Bit probably took Davanee to the park or something. You wanna go see what they're doing?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure" replied Anya.

Just as we were about the leave, the phone rang.

"Hold on" I said. Anya waited for me by the door while I answered the phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hi. Is this the Curtis residence?" asked a shaky voice from the other end. It sounded like a girls voice.

"Yeah" I replied.

"Good. For a second there I thought I had the wrong number. Is Ponyboy there?" asked the girl, a little more confident now

"Yeah, this is he" I said.

"Oh" said the girl. Her voice went right back to being nervous.

"Who is this?" I asked.

"Jamie."

I turned to Anya and told her to go to the park without me. She gave me a strange look at first but left anyways. She would understand once I got the chance to explain later.

I sat down on the couch.

"I'm in town for a couple of days" continued Jamie.

"And?"

"And I was wondering if you could meet me with Davanee at the park tomorrow" said Jamie.

"I don't know. I don't think that's a good idea."

"Please, Pony. I want to see her" she said. I thought about it for a moment. Even though she did abandon Davanee, she was her mother and from what I understand, the mother still has a right to see her baby.

"I guess you can see her for a little while" I said, "but just for a little while."

"Really?" asked Jamie, a hint of excitement in her voice.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, even though I'm still kinda mad at you for not telling me, you're still her mother and you still have the right to see her" I said.

"What time should we meet?" asked Jamie.

"How about 12?"

"12 works for me" said Jamie.

"Alright. See you later" I said.

"Bye" said Jamie, hanging up.

I sat on the couch a little while longer before I joined the others at the park. I wasn't so sure about letting Jamie see Davanee. What if she tried to take her or something? I couldn't stand Davanee being taken away from me.

"Who was on the phone?" asked Anya once I got to the park.

"Jamie" I replied.

"Who's Jamie?" asked Anya.

"Davanee's mother" I replied.

"What did she want?" asked Johnny.

"She wants to see Davanee. She asked me to meet her here tomorrow" I said.

"What did you say?" asked Two-Bit.

"I said yes."

"But what if she tries to take Davanee?" asked Anya.

"I dunno. I kinda figured that if she had given her up what would make her want to take Davanee back? Besides, it's not like I'm leaving her alone with the baby. I don't trust her that much" I said.

"Maybe you should have someone go with you" suggested Two-Bit.

"Like who?" I asked.

"Soda, me, Steve, anybody I guess. You know anyone of us'll come with ya" said Two-Bit.

I smiled and said "I know." We decided to go to the Tastee Freeze. It was getting close to lunch time and I was starting to get hungry. We only stayed there for about an hour. It wasn't as busy as it normally is so the service was better. Once we got home and after I fed Davanee, I put her down for a nap. She fell asleep almost instantly. She usually did that after a day at the park.

Once she was asleep, I sat down in the rocking chair in the corner. Before I knew it, I myself had fallen asleep.

I was awoken by Soda shaking me hard.

"What?" I asked groggily.

"You fell asleep in here again" said Soda, "come on it's time for dinner."

I got up, stretched, and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Where's Davanee?" I asked.

"She's sitting in her high chair in the kitchen. She woke up about an hour ago."

"Why didn't you wake me?" I asked.

"You've been up late every night and up early every morning for the past two weeks, you needed to sleep a little" said Soda. I sat down at the kitchen table while Darry finished making dinner.

"So how did it go today with Anya's parents?" asked Darry.

"Fine. They said yes" I said.

"That's good news. Anything else happen today?" asked Darry.

"Jamie called" I replied.

"What?" asked Darry.

"Jamie called. She wants to see Davanee tomorrow at the park" I said.

"Why?"

"Because she's her mom and she can. Davanee has the right to see her mother" I said, even though I knew there was no way that Davanee was going to remember this visit.

"Are you going?" asked Darry.

"Yeah. I don't see any reason not to. I was thinkin' that maybe somebody could come with us though" I said.

"Who?"

"I dunno. I was thinkin' about askin' Dallas, you know, to kinda scare her off" I said, laughing slightly. Darry laughed too.

"There's only one problem with that plan" said Darry.

"What's that?"

"Dallas got arrested again. From what I hear, he's gonna be in there for a long time" said Darry.

"What'd he do? How long is he gonna be in there?"

"Driving under the influence. I don't know how long he's gonna be there. A couple of months to a year possibly" said Darry.

"When did this happen?"

"Couple of days ago" replied Soda, coming into the kitchen. Darry put dinner on the table and we stopped talking about Dallas being arrested. It really wasn't a big shock to me. So far, he's been arrested nearly 20 times this year. Since none of us have the money to pay bail, the only ways he can get out are for good behavior or if he stays there for the whole sentence.

"So, who's going with you tomorrow?" asked Darry.

"I don't know. Are you workin' tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah" said Darry.

"I'm not" said Soda, "Steve's not either."

"Do you and Steve wanna come?" I asked.

"Go where?"

"To the park."

"Why?"

"Because Jamie called and she wants to meet us there."

The rest of dinner was pretty quiet. I mean, we did talk but we didn't talk about anything important. After dinner, I gave Davanee a bath. But this time it was in the bathtub, not the sink. We got her one of those seats that goes in the bathtub. You know, the ones with the suction cups. She seemed to like the bathtub better than the sink.

After the bath, I gave her a bottle and read her a story. She fell asleep before I could finish the story, like she always does. I put her in the crib and kissed her good night. I took a step back and looked at her for a moment. Most people would think that my life was terrible. My parents died and I have to raise a baby. But, honestly, I didn't think I was that unfortunate. I actually liked being a parent. I mean, it took some getting use to but it is probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me. People ask me how we get by, but it's easy when you've got a family like mine.

I found it hard to sleep that night. I kept on thinking things like what if Jamie tried to take Davanee? What if this was some sort of trap I had fallen into? I finally fell asleep around 1 but I was awoken at 7 by the sound of Davanee crying.

I made breakfast that morning since I was the first one up. Once breakfast was done and out of the way, I got ready to go. I let Soda and Steve get Davanee ready while I got dressed. Once I was ready to go, we left. When we first got to the park, I didn't see her. But then I noticed a little blonde haired girl sitting under the tree.

'That has to be her' I thought to myself.

"Where is she?" asked Soda.

"Sitting under the tree" I said, pointing to the tree, "you guys just stay here. I'll let you know if I need anything."

Steve looked a bit confused but Soda understood. I took Davanee out of the stroller and started making my way towards the tree. When Jamie saw me, she jumped up.

"Hi" she said.

"Hi."


	24. i trust you

I had spent hours trying to think of what to say and all I could say was hi? But then again, I wasn't really sure what to say. What do you say to someone who just left you with a baby?

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I already told you. I want to see Davanee" said Jamie.

"I know that. I meant what are you doing here in Tulsa?" I asked.

"I came to visit Peter for Christmas" said Jamie. There was a silence between us. We both sat down under the tree.

"I told my parents about Davanee" said Jamie.

"You did? What did they say?"

"They where pretty mad. They want to move her out to California when we leave. They think that it would be best for her if she stay with her mom, and in my mother's words 'without the father'" said Jamie.

"Wait a minute, your parents think this whole thing is my fault? I'm sorry but you're just as much to blame as I am" I said.

"I know and I tried to tell them that but they wouldn't listen. They think I'm some perfect angel sent for God" said Jamie, "that's part of the reason why I went to that party. I was mad. I was sick of being such a good girl. I wanted to show people that I could be rebellious and the one time that I am, I'm in way over my head."

There was a moment of silence between us. I couldn't really explain why I was at the party. I guess it was because I just wanted to go. I had never been to a really party before. Sure, I've been to birthday parties but no parties that didn't involve a piñata or cake.

"You're not taking her" I said.

"Why not?"

"Because you just can't."

"But I'm her mother. Don't I have a say in what happens to her?"

"Not when you haven't been around" I snapped.

"I see" said Jamie, "I kinda figured you would say that. Well, do you mind if I take a picture of her?"

"I guess there's no harm in that" I said. So I let Jamie take a picture of her. When Jamie put her camera away, she asked "can I hold her?"

I thought for a minute and looked around for Soda and Steve. They were sitting over by the fountain, watching us.

"Yeah, sure" I said, handing Davanee over to her a bit hesitantly.

"She's beautiful" said Jamie, tears coming to her eyes, "God, I've messed up so bad. I'm sorry, Pony. I'm sorry I never told you. You had every right to know. God, I owe the two of you such a big apology." Tears where streaming down Jamie's face. I couldn't help but feel bad for her. In my opinion, she owed her daughter more than an apology for abandoning her the way she did.

"You know, I've been thinking things over. Maybe it's best for the both of you if I leave you guys alone."

"You mean forget about us?" I asked.

"No, not forget. Just leaving you two alone. I thought that it would make things complicated for her if I started interfering when she got older."

"I see what you mean. I think that's a good idea but if you ever change your mind, we'll be here. Maybe she would like to get to know you when she's older" I said. It may seem like I didn't want Jamie to see her ever again, it's just that it would probably be a good idea to wait until she was older.

"Maybe" said Jamie. Just then, we heard a car horn coming from behind us.

"That's Peter. I gotta go" said Jamie, handing Davanee back to me. She gave Davanee a kiss goodbye and said bye. I had a feeling that wasn't the last time we were going to hear from her. I stood there with Davanee and watched the car until it drove out of sight. I heard footsteps coming up behind me.

"That wasn't so bad" said Soda.

"No, it wasn't" I said.

"What did she say?" asked Steve.

"She said that she thought it was best if she left the two of us alone for awhile. She thought it might make things complicated for Davanee if she interfered" I said, turning away from the road.

I walked back to the house in silence while Soda and Steve goofed off. When we got home, I was greeted by Anya.

"How did it go?" she asked.

I took a look around and noticed that practically the whole neighborhood was sitting in our living room. Mark Jennings and Bryon Douglas were sitting on the floor with Two-Bit and Johnny watching Mickey Mouse. Tim and Curly where sitting on the couch, indulged in some conversation that made no sense to anyone else. Darry was sitting in his chair reading the newspaper. And of course, Soda and Steve where right behind me. Everything stopped when I walked in. Everyone stared at me like they were expecting me to tell them some elaborate story.

"I'll tell you later" I said.

Anya said "ok" and took a seat on the floor next to Bryon.

"Oh come on, Pony. Give us all the details" said Two-Bit.

"Later" I said, sitting down next to Anya with Davanee in my lap.

"Oh come on" said Curly, "why don't you tell us what happened?"

" 'Cause it's none of your damn business" I snapped.

"Ponyboy, what did I tell you about cursing?" scolded Darry.

I mumbled a 'sorry' to Curly and Darry. But honestly, it really wasn't any of Curly's business. Or anybody else's. The only people that could know would be the gang, my brothers, and of course Anya.

"It's ok" said Curly, "it's not like I haven't heard that before."

After an hour or so everybody left, including the gang.

"So, what happened?" asked Darry.

"She wanted to take Davanee back to California with her but I said no. She got into the whole thing about her being her mother and having rights. I basically said that she didn't have any rights when she hasn't been around to take care of her and all that stuff. She thinks it's best that she stay away for now" I said.

"That' probably not a bad idea. She did say she would be back though, didn't she?" asked Anya.

"Not really" I said, "I mean, she kinda did say that she wanted to see her again but not for a long time. It's almost as if she wants to forget about us" I said.

"I think it's kinda hard to forget about her daughter" said Anya.

"I dunno. She could always fall down a flight of stairs and get a terrible case of amnesia" I said.

"That's worst case scenario" said Anya.

"Hey, it could happen" I said. Stranger things have happened.

"So, what else did you guys talk about?" asked Anya.

"That was it really. She said she was in town to spend Christmas with her brother. She told her parents about Davanee."

"What do you mean she told her parents?" asked Soda.

"She told her parents" I repeated. I thought that was pretty self explanatory.

"Her parents didn't know?" asked Darry.

"No. Her parents and her got into some big argument about something else and she stayed at her friends house for the whole 9 months or something like that. I dunno, she didn't really explain in full detail" I said.

"But what if her parents try to do something?" asked Soda.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Like what if they try to take her back to California?" asked Soda

"I honestly don't know" I said, and the conversation was left at that. Both Soda and Darry had to get to work and I had a huge test to study for. Anya watched Davanee while I studied. I had to make up a history test I missed when I was sick. Our teacher has this policy where you can make up a test any time you want. I liked that policy because sometimes I couldn't make up all my test within the week I came back.

Anya babysat Davanee that night. Both Soda and Darry had to work late. I gave Davanee and Anya a kiss goodbye before I left. I always do. I had to walk to school that night. I didn't like walking alone in our neighborhood at night. You never know what might happen. It wasn't common that a greaser would jump another greaser but then again, it wasn't unheard of.

Fortunately, I made it to the school without being jumped. Most of my classes went pretty well. I got pretty good grades on most of the test I got back, except for my biology test. I got a 75. That was one test I wasn't going to tell Darry about. My last class of the night was Sex Ed. Mrs. Rose gave us a project. She gave us all a sack of flour and we had to pretend like we were parents. I wanted to laugh when she announced the assignment but I didn't. 'Maybe now these people will have an idea of what I go through every day' I thought to myself.

"Can anyone tell me what the whole point is of this project?" asked Mrs. Rose. Nobody raised there hands. So, I decided to take a step out of my comfort zone and raise my hand.

"Ponyboy?" asked Mrs. Rose, pointing to me.

"I think the whole point is to teach us responsibility" I said.

"That's right" said Mrs. Rose, "it's to teach you guys how to be responsible."

Mrs. Rose went on a little more about the project. Then, at the end of class, she gave us our sacks of flour. Just as I was about to leave, Mrs. Rose pulled me aside.

"Something wrong, Mrs. Rose?" I asked.

"No. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions, if you don't mind" said Mrs. Rose.

"That's ok. Go ahead."

"Well, first of all, the first one is really more of a favor. You see, the school is having this "sex education" assembly in a month and I'm in charge of it. I thought that maybe it would be a good idea if we got some personal accounts from teenage parents and I was wondering if…"

"If I could give my testimony?" I asked.

"That is if you don't mind" said Mrs. Rose.

"It's ok. I'd be happy to. I don't think these kids realize how easy they have it" I said.

"I think you're right" said Mrs. Rose.

"You know, I don't know if this'll help but I know a couple of people who could giver there personal accounts. I could ask them for you" I offered.

"That'd help me so much" said Mrs. Rose.

"Ok, I'll talk to them tomorrow" I said.

There was a moment of silence between us. I was about to leave but then I remembered that there was something else she wanted to ask me.

"Wasn't there something else you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, you know, you don't have to do this project" said Mrs. Rose.

"Is it for a grade?"

"Yes."

"Then I guess I better do it. Can you imagine how bad it would look if I failed this class?" I asked. Mrs. Rose laughed a little.

"Yeah, that would be pretty bad" she said.

"Well, I should go."

"Ok, see you tomorrow" said Mrs. Rose.

I said bye and left. Soda was waiting for my outside, in front of the school.

"How'd it go?" asked Soda as we left the parking lot.

"Good."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"Ok."

The rest of the car ride was spent talking about what happened that day.

"Did you talk to Sandy today?" I asked.

"I did see her today and she said she'd stop by the DX tomorrow. You don't mind if I bring Davanee with me, do you? Sandy wants to see her."

"Yeah that's ok" I said, "I trust you."


	25. Sorry Soda

Chapter 25

Soda's POV

The next day at the DX went by really slow. It was a Thursday. We normally didn't have a whole lot of customers on Thursdays aside for the regulars, which would mainly be the 12 and 13 year old girls who loved to come in here just because of Steve and I. Steve didn't like it but I found it amusing. They were sweet and didn't really bother me a lot. There was one though who wanted to marry me but she moved on to someone else. But that day, I wasn't the center the girls attention for once. Davanee was the center of attention. I do have to admit, she was pretty cute. She'd smile and giggle at the customers.

"She's so cute" said one of the girls, "is she yours?"

"No, she's my niece."

"Oh, she looks a lot like you" said another girl. I didn't really think she looked a lot like me. If she looked like anybody, it was Pony.

After a couple of hours, it was finally time for our lunch break.

"Where do you want to go?" asked Steve as he helped me close up the garage.

"I dunno. Let's go to the Tastee Freeze. We haven't been there in a while" I said.

"Ok" said Steve. I knew Steve wouldn't object to that.

Pony gave us Davanee's car seat to use for the day which is good because I wasn't looking forward to walking the whole way. We arrived at the restaurant about 20 minutes later. We found Johnny and Pony sitting in one of the booths in the back.

"What are you doing here? Where's Anya?" I asked, once we reached the table. We had to push our way through a crowd to get to them.

"We got bored at the house. Anya's at school. What are you doing here?" asked Pony.

"It's our break" said Steve, sitting next to Johnny. I took a seat next to Pony.

"Daddy!" shrieked Davanee, pointing to Pony.

"Somebody wants you" I said, handing her over to Pony.

"She's probably hungry" said Pony, "she hasn't eaten since breakfast this morning."

Pony gave her a bottle, but she threw it at me and it rolled on the floor.

"Sorry" said Pony.

"That's ok" I said, "that's nothing compared to the amount of hair I've lost today" I said, standing up to get the bottle. It rolled underneath one of the tables. At first the people sitting there thought I was crazy but after I showed them the bottle them seemed to understand. I gave it back to Pony.

"I figured you probably didn't want her sucking on that after it's been on the floor" I said.

"That's ok. There's another one in her diaper bag. You did bring her diaper bag, right?" asked Pony.

"Yeah it's out in the car. I'll go get it." I went out to the truck and got the bag out of the front seat. When I closed the door, I saw Sandy standing there.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I had to see you. You're boss said that you'd probably be here" said Sandy.

"It's been awhile" I said.

"It has. What's the diaper bag for?" asked Sandy.

"Davanee, my niece" I replied.

"Oh yeah" said Sandy.

"How you feelin'?" I asked. Last time I checked, she was on bed rest.

"Pretty good. I went to the doctor today."

"What'd she say?"

"She said everything was good. The baby's due end of May, possibly beginning of June" said Sandy.

"I guess I'll have to wait until then to find out" I said.

"Maybe. I'm sorry, Soda."

"It's ok. It'll be ok" I said, knowing that it probably wouldn't. I invited Sandy to come join us but she declined. She said she had other things to do. I walked back inside with the baby bag strap slung over my shoulder. I must admit, I probably did look pretty ridiculous with a diaper bag.

"Who where you talking to?" asked Pony, taking the bag form me and giving Davanee her bottle.

"Sandy."

"What'd she say?" ask Steve.

"She said she had a doctors appointment today. The doctor said everything looked good. The baby's not due until end of May, beginning of July."

"That's good, I guess" said Steve. I nodded in agreement and sat down. We spent about an hour at the Tastee Freeze before heading back to work. I really didn't feel like working for the rest of the day but I knew I didn't have a choice. The only way I could get out of working was if I was sick and I mean really sick. The rest of the day went by pretty slow, just like I thought it would. Like I said, Thursday is our slowest day.

I got to go home early that day, which is good because I had to work late that whole week and I was tired.

When I got home, I was the only one home. I had given Davanee to Pony before we left the Tastee Freeze earlier that day. I kicked off my shoes, threw my jacket towards the couch (and missed), and got myself a glass of chocolate milk. I saw that the mail was sitting on the table. Darry had probably been home earlier. I quickly flipped through the letters. Nothing but junk and bills.

When I was done with the chocolate milk, I went to my room and laid down. My original plan was to just lay there a little while and then get up and do something but my heavy eyelids got the best of me. I tried to fight it off at first but I gave up and let sleep over take me. I must've slept for a long time because when I woke up, the house was pretty quiet. All I could hear was the muffled sound of the TV from the living room.

I rubbed my eyes and walked out to the living room. I had to blink a couple of times to get use to the light.

"Hey, little buddy" said Darry, "we was wonderin' when we were gonna see you."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"A couple of hours" replied Pony, who was sitting on the floor playing with Davanee.

"Where is everybody?" I asked.

"They all went home. They'll probably be back later. Sandy called, she wants to see you tonight" said Darry.

"What time?"

"Around 7."

I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 6 o'clock.

"I'm gonna go get a shower" I said. If I had to meet Sandy by 7, I had to start getting ready. It took almost thirty minutes to get to where she was staying. So I showered and got dressed as fast as I could.

"I'll see you guys later" I said, pulling my shoes on.

"Ok, what time will you be home?" asked Darry.

"I dunno. Around 12 maybe a little earlier" I said.

"Bye" said Pony.

"Bye" I said, grabbing the car keys off the counter.

I shivered a little once I got outside. It had gotten colder since I had come home. I climbed in the car and drove to see Sandy. I figured she was going to be at her friends house so I went there first. It seemed like it took forever for someone to answer the door.

A girl who looked to be about 6 or 7 answered the door.

"Who are you?" asked the girl.

"Sodapop Curtis. Is Sandy here?" I asked.

"Yeah, hang on" said the girl, "you can come in." She opened the door a little wider for me. The house looked like our house. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great.

"Sandy!" yelled the girl, "Soda's here to see you!

Sandy came out of a room with her hair dripping wet.

"Soda" said Sandy, rather surprised, "what are you doing here?"

"Darry and Pony said you called. You said you wanted to see me around 7."

"Oh, right. I'm sorry, I completely forgot. Just give me a couple of minutes to get ready. You can sit down if you want" said Sandy, walking back to the room, "make yourself at home."

So I sat down on the couch and waited. The little girl sat down next to me and stared at me. At first it was rather amusing but then it got to be annoying.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Bailey" said the girl.

"How do you know Sandy?"

"She's my sister" said Bailey.

"She never told me she had a sister. How old are you Bailey?"

"Dis many" said Bailey, holding up 6 fingers.

"Wow" I said, "that's cool."

Bailey smiled. I waited the rest of the time in silence.

"I'm ready" said Sandy, running a brush through her hair, "Bailey, can you go into the other room for a minute?"

"Sure" said Bailey, walking down the hall.

"You never told me you had a sister."

"She's not really my sister" said Sandy, "she's my step-sister."

"Oh. So, what do you want to do?" I asked.

"We have to talk" said Sandy.

"Ok" I said, expecting it to be nothing important. Sandy guided me over to the couch and we both sat down.

"I went to the doctor last week" said Sandy.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No, no. Nothing's wrong. The babies fine. I had a paternity test."  
"Can they do that before the baby's born?" I asked.

"Yes. The doctor said it's a relatively new procedure. The results came back today" said Sandy. I took a deep breathe. I tried as best I could to prepare myself for whatever was coming. I thought I was ready for the news, good or bad. But I was wrong.

"I'm so sorry Soda but you're not the father."


	26. I guess it just happened

Soda's POV

My heart sank. I felt like I was going to die right then and there. How could she do this to me? Or better yet, who did she do this with?

"Soda, I'm sorry" said Sandy. No amount of sorry's could make me feel better.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Dallas" whispered Sandy.

"Dallas? Dallas Winston?" I asked in disbelief.

Sandy nodded her head yes.

"When?" I asked.

"A couple of months ago" said Sandy, " I understand if you don't want to see me again."

"I have to go" I said, getting up. I stood up so fast, I was dizzy. "I can't stay here anymore."

"Soda wait" said Sandy, grabbing my arm. "you're upset. You can't drive home like this." Upset? I was a bit more than upset. It's hard to describe what I was feeling at that moment. It was a mix of just about every bad feeling in the world.

"Fine" I said, shaking loose of her grip, "I'll walk home. I'll be back to get the car in the morning." I walked out and slammed the door behind me. I didn't care if she was crying. I didn't care any more. I just wanted to curl up and die. I loved her and I was sure she loved me. I guess I was wrong. I could fell the tears coming. I tried to hold them back but they came anyways. I guess it was ok though because nobody I know was there to see me cry.

Before I knew it, I passed the park. That was were Sandy and I first met. I was 14 going on 15. She was there with a bunch of her friends. I was there with Two-Bit and Steve. Steve dared me to go talk to her. She thought I was adorable. After that, we started hanging out together. I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened from there.

'But how does she know Dallas?' I asked myself. Then I remembered. I had introduced her to him when he was at the DX one time. I thought she looked at him in a weird way but I didn't think much of it then.

'This is all my fault' I thought. If I hadn't introduced them, this wouldn't have happened. I know it may sound stupid to blame myself, but it really was my fault.

But then my thoughts changed. I was gonna kill Dallas Winston if it was the last thing I did. He knew better then to sleep with someone else's girl. Call me crazy but I expected better from him.

I sat down underneath the tree at the park. I didn't want to go home. I couldn't go home. If I did, I would have to explain everything to Darry and this night was already bad enough. I didn't need it to get worse. Besides, I just wanted to be alone. At my house, you can never be alone. I began to loose track of time and pretty soon, I cried myself to sleep underneath the tree.

PONY'S POV

Darry went to bed before me that night. I said I would tell Soda to wake him up when he got home. I waited as long as I could but I fell asleep. Around 3 or so, Davanee woke up. She normally slept through the night but there were those occasional nights when she did get up. I gave Davanee a bottle and put her back to bed. When I walked into my room to go back to sleep, I was shocked to see that Soda wasn't there.

I walked down the hall into Darry's room.

"Darry" I said, shaking him so he'd wake up.

"What is it?" asked Darry, "what's wrong?"

"Soda's not home" I said.

"What?"

"Soda hasn't come home yet. Darry, we gotta go look for him" I said.

"Alright" said Darry, "give me a couple of minutes."

While I waited for Darry, I put on some shoes and a jacket.

"You're going too?" asked Darry.

"Yeah, why not?"

"What about Davanee?"

"We'll take her with us. She'll be fine. She'll sleep the whole time" I said.

"I dunno. It's suppose to be really cold out tonight."

"I'll put a jacket on her and wrap her up in a couple of blankets" I said.

"Alright but be careful. You know this neighborhood isn't safe at night" said Darry.

"I know, I know" I said, going into Davanee's room. I put a jacket on her and wrapped her up in her Mickey mouse blanket and another blanket she got fro Christmas. She didn't wake up.

Right as we were about to leave, Steve and two-bit came over. We explained to them what was going on and they agreed to come with us. We decided to split up. Two-bit and I went towards the park while Darry and Steve went in the other direction.

Two-bit and I looked everywhere, including Sandy's old house. We knew he probably wouldn't be there but it was worth a shot.

After about two hours of searching, we went to the park. I was about to give up and go home when I saw something dark underneath the tree. As I got closer, I could see that it was Soda.

"He's gonna be so sick" I said.

"From what?" asked Two-Bit.

"From staying out here in the cold all night" I said.

I started shaking Soda so he'd wake up.

"What?" asked Soda, fluttering his eyes open.  
"Come on" I said, "let's get you home."

"Pony? Is that you?" asked Soda.

"Yeah, two-bit too" I said, helping Soda stand up, "what happened?"

"I'll tell you later" said Soda, yawning.

We got Soda home and got him to bed. Two-bit fell asleep in Darry's chair while I waited for Steve and Darry to get back. Once they did get back, I told them that we had found him asleep under the tree in the park. Darry said that he was too tired to be mad so he just went to bed. Steve made a bed for himself on the floor. For some reason, I went back to sleep on the couch.

The next morning, I was awoken by the sound of the door slamming. I opened my eyes to see Dallas Winston standing over me.

"Dal?" I asked.

"Hey kid" said Dal, heading towards the kitchen.

"What are you doin' here? I thought you was in the cooler" I said.

"I was. They let me out early. Good behavior, man" said Dal, searching through the ice box, "where is everybody?"

"They're still asleep. We were out kinda late last night lookin' for Soda" I said.

"What happened?"

"I dunno. He didn't say" I said, stepping over Steve so I could get to the kitchen.

"You think it had something to do with Sandy?" asked Dallas, pulling a Pepsi out of the ice box.

"Maybe. He did go over to where she's stayin' last night" I said.

"She's pregnant, ain't she?"

"Yeah. How'd you know? Soda hasn't told anybody."

"Can I tell you something?" asked Dallas.

"Yeah sure" I said.

Dallas looked around the room a couple of times, as if to make sure that nobody else was listening. "I'm the father."

"What?!" I asked, a bit louder than what I intended.

"I went over to her house yesterday when I got out and she told me" said Dal.

"Soda's gonna kill you" I said.

I was going to say something else but Davanee started crying.

"Be right back" I said. I got Davanee out of the nursery and brought her to the kitchen.

"Would you mind holding her while I get the baby food?" I asked.

"She's not gonna spit up on me, is she?" asked Dallas.

"If she doesn't like you, she will" I said. Dallas took her from me anyways.

As soon as I let go of her, she laid her head down on Dallas' shoulder.

"Awww, she likes you" I said.

"Great" said Dallas, sarcastically.

I smiled and got the food and formula from the pantry.

I took the baby from Dally and placed her in the high chair. Dallas watched as I fed Davanee.

"What?" I asked.

"How do you do it?" asked Dal.

"Do what?"

"Take care of her? I mean, how do you take care of another person?" asked Dal. Dally seemed to be showing his rare, softer side this morning. I would too if I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant and my life was about to change. I probably would've reacted like that had Jamie told me. I guess I'll never know.

"I dunno really. I just go by instinct I guess" I said. I really don't know how I did it. People might think that a 14 year old kid with a baby would never work out in a million years, but everything seemed to be working just fine for Davanee and I. We got lucky. We didn't have to go through that much.

"You're scared, aren't you?" I asked.

"No" said Dallas. I knew he would never say yes. He would never, ever admit to being scared. But I wasn't fooled that easily. I could always tell when people, especially people like Dallas, were scared. Mom said it was a gift to be able to read people like that. I don't think it's anything special.

"It's hard" I said.

"You're lying" said Dallas.

"Why would I lie about that? It's hard work, no joke."

"What's so hard about it?"

"Everything."

"That's specific" said Dallas, rolling his eyes.

"But it's not all bad. Some of it's kinda good" I said.

"Like what? What could possibly be good about parenting?" asked Dallas, being a bit skeptical.

"Like when she said her first word. When she started crawling. First laugh, smile. All that stuff" I said, trying to get Davanee to eat a spoonful of peaches.

"She hasn't started walking yet?"

"Not yet" I said, "I'm kinda dreading her walking though because she'll be into everything."

Dallas looked like he was about to say something but we heard somebody coming down the hall. Soda shuffled his way into the kitchen, his hair messy and his eyes red.

"What's he doing here?" asked Soda, guestering towards Dallas.

"He just came by for breakfast" I said.

"And you actually let him in?" asked Soda.

"He was asleep when I got here, it's not his fault" said Dallas in my defense.

"Whatever" said Soda, taking the chocolate milk out of the ice box. "It's too early to be getting in a fight now."

"I gotta go. See ya later, Pony" said Dallas, making his way to the front door.

"Bye. See ya" I said.

Dallas took a deep breathe and said "thanks." The word caught me off guard. Dallas never said thanks for anything.

"For what?" I asked.

"For the talk" said Dallas. On that note, he left, his hands shoved in his pockets and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"What did you talk about that made Dallas want to thank you?" asked Soda, sitting down at the kitchen table.

I didn't respond. I didn't know what to say really. I didn't know if Sandy had told him yet or not. I wasn't about to risk everything and say that Dallas was the father.

"Come on, I already know about Sandy and Dallas. She told me last night. What did you talk about?" asked Soda.

"He wanted to know how I cold take care of Davanee and myself at the same time" I said.

"That's it?"

"That's it" I said.

Soda shook his head, as if disagreeing with me, and said "today is going to be a long, hard day."

"Yeah, it probably will. But you'll get through it" I said.

"Sure" said Soda, doubtingly.

"Well, you got through mom and dad dying, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"Don't you think you can get through this too?"

"Maybe. But this is different from mom and dad. This is Sandy we're talking about. She went behind my back and slept with someone I've known practically my whole life. To be honest, I feel like I've been betrayed by the both of them. And it's all my fault" said Soda.

"It's not your fault" I said.

"Yes it is. If I hadn't introduced them, I wouldn't be in this situation right now. I just, I wanna hurt someone until they feel as bad as I do" said Soda. That sounded bad coming from Soda. Soda wouldn't hurt anybody unless they were a Soc. He wasn't one to go looking for a fight.

"Maybe you should talk to her. Work things out" I suggested. I didn't know a whole lot about girls but I've learned that talking things out with people can help most situations. Why should this one be any different?

"I dunno. Maybe I should but I think I'll wait until I feeling a bit better" said Soda.

"That's probably a good idea" I said, taking Davanee out of the highchair to the sink. She had gotten food all over her face.

"I guess there is one good side to all of this" said Soda.

"What's that?"

"I don't have to be up at 3 am every morning" said Soda.

I laughed and said "that's true. That's one good part."

There was a moment of silence between us. I continued to clean Davanee up while Soda sat at the table, sipping his chocolate milk. I was about to go back to the nursery to dress Davanee when Soda asked "Why does everything have to get so complicated when you get older?"

"I don't know" I said, "I wish I did."

"I mean, when you're a kid everything is perfect. Everything is so easy for you when you're little but when you get older you realizes that things get harder. I just wish everything could go back to being so easy" said Soda.

"Well ya know if everything was always easy for us, we wouldn't really learn anything. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always thought that you learn from you're experiences" I said. I know I have. I think everybody does. We learn from both the good and the bad experiences.

"When'd you get to be so smart?" asked Soda.

"I don't know. I guess it just happened."


	27. i can wait

PONY'S POV

I was right when I said that Soda would get through the situation with Sandy. He went over to her place a couple of days after she told him and talked things over. Unfortunately, they broke up. I thought that was a wise decision on his part. I liked Sandy and all but I think that if she went behind Soda's back and slept with someone else once, she could do it again. Soda couldn't bare to go through that again.

Eventually, Soda had to explain what was going on to Darry. At first Darry was furious but thought that Soda was being pretty responsible about the whole thing. I think he was too. It took a lot for him to leave Sandy. I think he still loved her but deep down, he knew she would hurt him again.

One night I was sitting in my room trying to think of what I was going to say at that assembly thing when Anya walked in.

"Dinner's almost ready" she said, "what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to think of something to say at this assembly thing I have to go to next week" I said.

"What assembly thing?"

"Oh, it's this thing that the school is having. Mrs. Rose said that it was an "intercourse educational assembly" but I think it's just a way to scare kids into not doing it" I said.

"And Mrs. Rose asked you to speak?"

"Yeah, like give a testimony or something. She said she wanted me to ask people from the support group. I was thinking about asking Maddie" I said.

"That would be a good idea" said Anya.

"You'll be there, right?"

"Is it during the school day?"

"Yeah."

"Then I have no choice. I hate how they make us go to these stupid things if we don't need to hear it. Are you taking Davanee with you?" asked Anya.

"Yeah. She loves to see people and I think people love to see her" I said, writing down a new idea about what I was going to say.

"Maybe she'll grow up to be a performer or something" said Anya.

"Maybe."

"Well, I better go check on dinner before it burns and I burn the house down" said Anya.

I laughed and said "ok."

About 10 minutes later I finished up what I was going to say and joined everybody else out in the living room. Davanee was playing with her toys in her play pin while Two-Bit was sitting in front of the TV, watching an old episode of Mickey.

"Is that all you ever watch?" I asked.

"Yeah" said Two-Bit, his eyes glued to the TV. I was lucky I even got a yeah out of him. Usually, if you tried to talk to him during Mickey, he would just nod or ignore you entirely.

"Dinner's ready" announced Anya. Two-Bit reluctantly pulled himself away from the TV long enough to fix himself a plate of food. Once he was done, he took his plate and sat back down in front of the TV. Since Darry and Soda weren't home that night for dinner, we could eat wherever we wanted. Anya and I sat on the couch and tried to watch TV but it was impossible to see around Two-Bit.

"Two-Bit move" I said.

"No" said Two-Bit.

"Come on" I said.

"No, I don't want to" said Two-Bit. He sounded like a stubborn 2 year old when he said that. But then again, the thing I was about to do was pretty childish too. I took a pillow from the couch and threw it at the back of Two-Bit's head. He threw the pillow back at me, missed, and hit the lamp that was next to the couch. The lamp fell, the shade came off, and the bulb broke.

"Nice one genius, you broke it" I said, trying to fix it.

"I did not. All you have to do is replace the bulb" said Two-Bit.

"That's gonna be pretty hard to do since we don't have any bulbs to replace it with" I said, putting the shade back on the lamp. It was a little crooked but it was ok, just as long as someone didn't try to turn it on.

Just as I had finished fixing the lamp, Soda and Steve came home.

"Where's the mail?" asked Soda, taking off his shoes.

"It's on the kitchen table" said Anya.

Soda flipped through the mail hastily, throwing the bills and junk aside.

"It's just junk and bills" I said.

Soda threw the mail back on the table and joined Two-Bit and Steve on the floor in front of the TV.

After dinner was over, I gave Davanee a bath. I think there was more water on the floor then in the tub.

When I was getting Davanee ready for bed in her nursery, Soda came in.

"You know, Dallas stopped by work today" said Soda.

"What happened?"

"We got in a fight. But things worked out in the end" said Soda.

"That's good. You guys have known each other since you were kids. That's good that something like this hasn't totally destroyed your friendship" I said, laying Davanee down in her crib.

"Not totally. I mean, it's different but it's not totally gone. He explained to me what happened that night. He said that they both got drunk and got a little carried away" said Soda.

"Story of my life" I said.

Soda sort of smiled and walked out of the room, his hands in his pockets.

The next day was Monday. I never really liked Mondays but since I didn't have to go to school during the day, I guess they weren't so bad. I talked to Maddie that day.

"I don't know" said Maddie, bouncing Dillon on her hip.

"Come on, why don't you want to do it?" I asked.

"I don't like speaking in front of people. I'm not a very good public speaker" said Maddie.

"Neither am I but I'm still doing it" I said.

Maddie thought about it for a moment before finally saying "I guess I'll do it."

About a week later, both Maddie and I found ourselves waiting in the wings of the stage in the auditorium at school. I was starting to get nervous. It's funny because I wasn't nervous until about an hour before I had to speak.

Mrs. Rose did most of the talking, giving out statistics and all that. I knew that statistics wouldn't affect these kids. They don't care. I sat there and listened to Mrs. Rose. She sounded like she was a doctor or something. I listened to her a little while longer until she called me to the stage.

At first I just stood there, my mouth wide open, with every eye in the room on me.

They looked at me like I was crazy or something.

"Hi" I began. I figured hi was a pretty good place to start. "Umm, my name is Ponyboy Curtis." I could hear some snickers coming from the crowd when I said my name. It was ok though, I was use to it.

"This is my daughter Davanee. I know what you guys must be thinking. Trust me, I've been there before. You could be thinking this is so stupid. What's wrong with doing it just once? It's not like I'm going to die from it. I don't need to hear this. Nothing is going to happen to me. I use to think the same thing that is until one night at a party. You see, what happened was we both got drunk and nine months later I find myself getting up at 3 in the morning because she needs to be changed, or she's hungry, or she's sick. You think that just one night won't do anything. Nothing can happen from a one night stand. You're wrong. Sure, it'll seem like it's all fun and games at that moment but 9 months from then or when your doctor tells you you've got some disease you can't get rid of, it won't seem like fun and games. I'm not trying to be mean to you or anything, it's just the way things are. I wish it were different. I wish we didn't have to live with our mistakes but we do." The audience just stared at me as if they weren't paying attention. I continued to talk a little more about different thing pertaining to the subject matter. Then it was Maddie's turn. She said basically the same things I did but I guess you can't hear that kind of stuff enough.

Two-Bit picked me up from school

"How'd it go?" he asked.

"Pretty good" I said, "better than what I expected."

"Why, did you think it would go bad?"

"Sorta" I said.

The rest of the car ride was pretty quiet. Before we went home, we stopped by the DX.

"So it went well?" asked Soda.

"Yeah. What time do you get off?"

"About an hour" said Soda, "you wanna just wait and come home with us?"

"Yeah. I think Two-Bit said he had some other stuff to do today" I said.

"Two-Bit has stuff to do other than just sitting around? That's a shock" said Steve.

"Yeah, I know" I said. We waited for an hour for Soda and Steve to get off work. I let Davanee play with some of her toys while we waited. While we were waiting, Anya stopped by. She always stopped by the DX after school.

"How was your day?" I asked, sitting up on the counter with Davanee in my lap.

"Pretty good" said Anya, joining me on the counter.

"What was so good about it?"

"Well, for one thing I got to see you at school today" she said, smiling, "one of the reasons why I don't like school is because I don't get to see you."

"Maybe that'll change when Davanee starts going to daycare" I said.

"Yeah but that seems like such a long time for now. I don't know if I can wait that long" she said.

"I can always leave Davanee at home by herself. That's a good idea."

"I was just kidding. I can wait" said Anya.


	28. Happy Birthday

Darry let me sleep in that morning. That morning was a special morning. It was my birthday. I knew Darry and Soda had something planned for me that day but I wasn't sure what. I had a feeling I would like it no matter what it was.

I woke up that morning to the smell of eggs and chocolate cake, which is the smell I wake up to every morning so there was nothing special about that. I rubbed my eyes and rolled out of bed. As I made my way down the hall I could see that it was only Soda, Anya, and Davanee in the living room that morning. Darry was in the kitchen. Once I entered the living room, Anya said "morning , birthday boy."

"Morning" I said, sitting down on the couch.

"Happy birthday" said Soda, handing Davanee over to me.

"She's already been fed" said Anya.

"Thanks" I said.

"No problem. So, what are you doing today?"

"I don't know" I said.

"You won't get your presents until around dinner time" said Soda.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we have to work today. I tried to get off work but my boss said he really, really needed me to work" said Soda.

"It's ok. I understand" I said.

"Breakfast is ready" called Darry from the kitchen. I put Davanee in her highchair and gave her some toys to play with while the rest of us ate. Anya and I decided that we were going to the movies that day while Soda and Darry went to work. There was some new Paul Newman movie out that I wanted to see. We took Davanee with us. Two-Bit and Johnny had offered the day before to baby sit her but I said no. I liked the thought of spending my birthday with my daughter.

The theatre was packed. But it was Saturday so I guess that had something to do with it. We found two seats in the middle of the theatre. Davanee could sit on my lap. Unfortunately, Davanee started crying halfway through the movie and wouldn't stop so we had to leave. So we headed to the DX since we had nothing better to do. We almost always went to the DX when we had nothing better to do. Soda said he liked it whenever we came but I'm not so sure about Steve. Steve and I don't really go together, but we try to get along for Soda's sake.

After spending about an hour or so sitting around the DX, we went to the park. The park was another place we went to when there was no better way to spend our time. We took turns pushing Davanee on the swing.

"You'll never guess who I got a letter from the other day" said Anya while I pushed Davanee.

"Who?"

"My parents" said Anya.

"Really? What's it say?" I asked.

Anya took the letter out of her pocket and pushed Davanee for me.

The letter read:

_Anya,_

_I am writing you to tell you that your father and I have made it to New York safety and have finally finished unpacking. It took us a couple of weeks but we finally got it done. I started my job as a publisher at a new publishing company. Things are going pretty well for us. I wish you were here with us but I guess you wouldn't be happy here. I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry for treating you so badly when you didn't do anything. You deserved better than that. Your father says he's sorry too. We are thinking about adopting another girl. This time it's going to be a baby. I hope you're happy in Tulsa. It must be different without us there to bother you every day. I hope to hear from you soon._

_Love,_

_Mom_

"I thought you said she didn't like you" I said, giving the letter back.

"I thought she didn't either but I guess I was wrong" said Anya.

"So do you think you'll be joining them in New York?" I asked.

"No, not now at least. I'm pretty happy here for the time being. Maybe I'll move up there when I'm older if I really want to" said Anya, taking Davanee out of the swing.

"Let's go sit under the tree" said Anya.

"Ok" I said. I joined Anya and Davanee underneath the tree.

I let Davanee crawl around under the tree while Anya and I talked. I was in the middle of a sentence when Anya stopped me.

"What?" I asked.

"Look" she said, pointing to Davanee. I turned around to see that Davanee was actually walking towards us.

"She's walking" I said, not believing what I was seeing. I scooped her up and gave her a big kiss.

"She's not a little baby anymore" said Anya.

"I know. Her first birthday is in two months" I said. It seemed like just yesterday when I saw her for the first time. I know almost every parent says that but for me it really did seem like yesterday.

We spent a couple more hours at the park. Then we had to go home. It looked like it was going to rain. As soon as we got to the house, it started to rain.

"You got here just in time" said Soda, who was home early.

"Yeah" said Anya, "what are you doing home so early?"

"Joe let us off early today" said Soda.

"That's good. We got something to show you" I said. I took Davanee and sat on the floor. Anya sat across from me.

"Watch this" I said, standing Davanee up. At first she looked around the room like she had forgotten what she was suppose to do. We had practiced this at the park earlier. Then she looked at Anya and took a couple of steps. It took her a while to get all the way across but she did it.

"When did she learn how to walk?" asked Soda.

"Today when we were at the park" I said, picking Davanee up.

"So, when's Darry gonna be home?" asked Anya.

"He should be home any minute now. He said sometime around 6 and it's 6 now. Man, I can't believe she's walking" said Soda, shaking his head.

"Me neither. You know she'll be 1 soon" I said.

"Seriously? When's her birthday? I forgot" said Soda.

"April 22" I replied. Just then, Darry walked in the door carrying a couple of presents.

"Hello?" called Darry from the living room. We had all moved into the kitchen by then.

"In here!" I called.

Darry walked into the kitchen and set the presents down on the table.

"Darry, you gotta see this" I said, leading him back to the living room.

"What?" he asked.

"Go sit on the floor" I instructed. Darry gave me a weird look, like I was crazy or something, but sat down anyways.

I sat across from him. Soda handed Davanee to me.

"Watch" I said. I stood Davanee up once again. She looked at me, a bit unsure about the whole walking thing. But she looked at Darry and took a couple of steps towards him, and then fell backwards. I helped her back up and she continued to walk towards him.

"When did she start walking?" asked Darry.

"Today at the park" I said.

"She ain't a baby no more" said Darry, getting up.

"I know. That's what Anya said today at the park" I said, picking Davanee up and placing her in her high chair. I gave her a couple of toys to play with.

"So what does the birthday boy want for dinner?" asked Darry.

"I dunno. Surprise me" I said, winding up Davanee's music box. Davanee loved her _Nutcrakcer _music box. I wouldn't be surprised if she was in that ballet someday. No body in our family was really big into arts but it was Soda's idea to buy her the music box.

After dinner that night, we opened presents. By that time, the whole gang had joined us. Honestly, I was happy with what I got. For the most part it was books and clothes which may sound boring to you but it's what I asked for. I needed new clothes and since I'm such a big reader, I always like new books. But I would have to say that the best gift I received that year was seeing Davanee walk for the first time. I know it may sound corny but it's the truth.


	29. Happy birthday Davanee

Chapter 29

Nothing really happened during the 2 months between my birthday and Davanee's birthday. I was more excited about Davanee's birthday then I was my own. 15th birthday wasn't really that big a deal but 1st birthday was. We started the day off like we do every day, except I said happy birthday to Davanee that morning. She just looked up and smiled a toothless grin at me.

Normally Davanee would just wear jeans and a t-shirt but not that day. She wore a pink dress with stockings and black dress shoes that day. I knew that as she got older, she wouldn't want to wear that kind of stuff all day so I took advantage of it. I do have to admit, she looked pretty cute in that dress. I took her out to the kitchen were Darry was making breakfast.

"You know she's gonna hate you when she gets older for making her wear all those dresses" said Darry.

"She will not" I said, placing Davanee in her highchair. "Are you workin' today?" I asked, getting the baby food out of the pantry.

"Yeah, but I'm comin' home around 1" said Darry.

"What about Soda?" I asked, trying to get Davanee to eat something.

"I think so" said Darry, "but I think he's comin' home early too. Hey, are you goin' to school tonight?"

"Probably not" I said, "if that's ok."

"Yeah I guess you can stay home this once. I mean, your kids 1st birthday only happens once" said Darry.

I was going to say something but then I heard Two-Bit and Steve come in.

"Where's the birthday girl?" asked Two-Bit.

"Right here in her highchair" I said.

"She doesn't look a year old" said Steve.

"Maybe she's small for her age" I said.

"Maybe" said Steve.

"So what are you guys doing today?" asked Two-Bit.

"I've got a couple of errands to run this morning. You guys are coming over later, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. We wouldn't miss her birthday" said Two-Bit.

"Good. Darry, can you watch her while I get a shower and get dressed?" I asked.

"Of course" said Darry. So I got a shower and got dressed. While I was getting dressed, I woke Soda up so he wouldn't be late. He protested at first but eventually got out of bed.

Once I was done, Davanee and I went out. I had to get the cakes and ice cream for later. Darry ordered the cakes yesterday. One was a little pink cake that said 1st birthday in white icing. That one was for Davanee. The other one was bigger. It was white with pink, yellow, and purple flowers that said happy birthday Davanee in pink. Then we got the ice-cream. It was just plain chocolate. We took the cakes and ice-cream home so the ice-cream wouldn't melt.

Once I put the cakes and ice-cream away, I put Davanee down for a nap. She gets cranky if she doesn't nap. I just waited for everybody to get home while Davanee was asleep. The first to come home was Anya. She only had a half day at school that day.

"How was school?" I asked.

"It was ok. It's not like anything can happen on a half day" said Anya.

"True" I said.

We waited a little while longer for someone else to come home. After about an hour or so, everybody was sitting in our living room waiting for Davanee to wake up. We watched TV and played cards while we waited. I was right in the middle of a card game when I heard her crying.

"She's up" I said, going into the nursery.

I picked her up out of her crib and brought her out to the living room. I had to open all her presents for her. She mostly got stuff she really needed, like clothes and stuff like that.

After the presents we all sat down to dinner and after dinner came the cake and ice cream. Davanee got her own cake. She looked at me a bit confused, like she didn't know what she was suppose to do with it. I gave her a little taste of the cake. Once she tasted it, she stuck both of her hands in. She ended up getting more on her face then in her mouth.

Once we were done with the cake and ice cream, I had to give Davanee a bath. Once we had finished with the bath, and I had finished cleaning up the puddle of water on the floor, I put Davanee to bed. I still couldn't believe she was a year old. It didn't feel like a year had passed. She didn't even look a year old.

I laid her down in her crib and gave her a kiss goodnight. She gave me butterfly kisses.

**I'm sorry to say that this is the last chapter, but don't worry, there's going to be a sequel.**


End file.
